Whatever happened to ‘œwalk on’?

By Max Munton On · 45 Comments · In LFC News

There’s an unsurprising general consensus in morning’s newspapers, on the day following a weekend that saw Liverpool blow any faint title hopes they had by losing 2-0 to a Middlesbrough team that hadn’t won in the league for four months, as Manchester United clinched their first trophy of the season at Wembley.

Sickeningly, the contrast couldn’t be much more different. United sit seven points clear at the top of the league with a game in hand, playing some of the best football seen under Alex Ferguson’s reign and there’s talk about a quintuple. At Anfield on the other hand, we’re far from challenging for the Premier League title and, as with every season, disappointment has set in that this won’t be ‘˜our year’. And there’s talk at Liverpool about who is the biggest clown in the club.

Oliver Kay of The Times writes a brilliant piece on how Liverpool were left in the dark many years ago by their failure to capitalize on the increasing money in football. He talks of how the Reds lose out on tens of millions by their smaller stadium, giving figures that compare with United that we’re all too familiar with.

Life at Anfield was quiet. A few people might mill around during the week, trying to spot a star or snatch an autograph, but it was only on match days that any real crowd gathered. Go to Old Trafford any day of the week and you will see . . . crowds gathering, buying tickets, drifting around the souvenir shop, queuing for the museum or simply gawping at the stadium. Old Trafford is supermarket football.’

The above paragraph could easily have been written last week, but in fact it was written 15 years ago in Stephen F. Kelly’s biography of Graeme Souness. Kelly went on to portray Manchester United as a corporate monster and Liverpool as a cosy corner shop, but he suggested that things were changing, that the Merseyside club were evolving into ‘œa multimillion-pound business staffed by well-paid executives in Marks & Spencer suits and where success is imperative on and off the field’. How did that go, then?

Colin Young of this morning’s Daily Mail brands the Reds as ‘œmugs’ after the performance at Middlesbrough on Saturday:

Magnificent in Madrid and mugs in Middlesbrough, Rafael Benitez and his players surrendered their faint hopes of lifting the Barclays Premier League Trophy with defeat at the Riverside.

Sam Wallace of The Independent urges Benitez to end the power battle he has with the club, though just how is confusing enough:

No one is entirely sure what Benitez’s ideal scenario is at Liverpool, other than that it would involve him making all the decisions. Ignoring for a moment the growing unlikelihood of a bid from the Middle East, a change of ownership would not ultimately suit him if it was to bring just as much interference from the boardroom as, say, is the case at Manchester City. Would he find himself any less likely to clash with a rich man from Dubai than he has with considerably less rich Americans?

I don’t know what happened to ‘œat the end of the storm there’s a golden sky’, because this storm has now lasted a frustrating 19 years. Yes there’s been gaps in the cloud which have seen success in all the Cup competitions but the league title is the pinnacle. The fans know it, the club knows it and the fans know the club knows it.

But there’s also the lyrics ‘œwalk on, with hope in your heart’ and many Liverpool fans seem to be forgetting this. Over the last two days the papers and fans have slammed Rafa Benitez for his decision making and tactics at Middlesbrough. Just days after he was hailed as a tactical genius for the heroics in Madrid.

Yes, it’s the same old story of two parallel universes. One where Liverpool triumph, impress, succeed and at times look untouchable in Europe, before returning home to look like they don’t even belong in the top half of the Premier League.

Benitez has made some awful decisions since the turn of the year which has seen us slip from being ten points clear of Manchester United to seven, potentially ten, points behind (granted, United did have three games in hand when we thumped Newcastle Utd 5-1).

I agree with most, the Middlesbrough game was a tactical catastrophe. The decision to play Martin Skrtel at right-back, when he has been outstanding in central defence all season, was risky and silly. Having no striker on the field at the start of play wasn’t the ideas of a team that wants to go out and win, definitely. But at the same time, fans who mention the words ‘˜Robbie Keane shouldn’t have been sold’ in this gap must be reminded how many chances he would miss for Liverpool, in a game that saw us miss several chances to put the game beyond Boro.

His off the pitch talk about the FA’s treatment of Alex Ferguson and public criticism of the club regarding his new contract talks have come at irresponsible and uneducated times. And he hasn’t admitted that he was wrong to do so. No manager does. They’re all stubborn.

Apart from Martin O’Neil, perhaps.

The contrast between us and Manchester United is horrible. But the fact remains that we are on the verge of the quarter-finals of the Champions League and there are still eleven games to go in this league campaign. It’s only early March and the season doesn’t finish til May.

The criticism of Benitez is helping no-one. I want to urge fans to stop the criticism, get behind our manager and the players for the rest of the campaign. By all means, reassess the situation at the end of the season and vent your anger when it’s not going to effect things on the pitch. But now is not the time for the criticism, loss of confidence and walking out early of games (I’m looking at you, fans who went to Middlesbrough away). Rafa Benitez is still Liverpool manager and those men out there, however poorly they’re playing, are still our players. They need you more than ever now.

Now is the time to sing up ‘˜til the end, stop the negativity and finish this campaign the Liverpool way, ‘œwith hope in your heart’.

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  • kemlyn83

    Pieman – well said. Sick to death of the whingers. Let’s get behind the players, the manager and the club. For those who think that we should get rid of Benitez – be very careful what you wish for. There were even United fans who were saying get rid of Fergie 3 years ago, that his days were numbered. Some people are just greedy and want instant gratification.

  • anteater

    Pieman, I appreciate your stance, but I think that you should wake up, take of the rose-tinted glasses and stop whinging about those people who have a point-of-view that differs from yours.

    Ok, let’s keep Benítez. We may win a few more European Cups, but will be turned more and more into a circus domestically. Rafa claims to have read a few book about our history (or he ordered his wife to read them). Now please tell me where he read that he should tell everyone who would listen that he has rejected yet another contract, that this and that is wrong, others have more money and so on. That’s not the Liverpool way. Neither is to play safety first all of the time. We may not win the league, but I’d prefer to do so with a fight and not cowardly.

    Do you honestly expect Rafa to change his general approach to football matches? He’s been here for almost five years and I don’t get the impression that he ever would.

    One thing has truly be achieved during his time at Anfield (though he’s surely not to blame for all of this). Our owners are divided, our CEO and manager are divided and our supporters are divided. The later I have last experienced, in such an extend, in Houllier’s last year.

  • anteater

    Pieman, I appreciate your stance, but I think that you should wake up, take of the rose-tinted glasses and stop whinging about those people who have a point-of-view that differs from yours.

    Ok, let’s keep Benítez. We may win a few more European Cups, but will be turned more and more into a circus domestically. Rafa claims to have read a few book about our history (or he ordered his wife to read them). Now please tell me where he read that he should tell everyone who would listen that he has rejected yet another contract, that this and that is wrong, others have more money and so on. That’s not the Liverpool way. Neither is to play safety first all of the time. We may not win the league, but I’d prefer to do so with a fight and not cowardly.

    Do you honestly expect Rafa to change his general approach to football matches? He’s been here for almost five years and I don’t get the impression that he ever would.

    One thing has truly be achieved during his time at Anfield (though he’s surely not to blame for all of this). Our owners are divided, our CEO and manager are divided and our supporters are divided. The later I have last experienced, in such an extend, in Houllier’s last year.

  • anteater

    Pieman, I appreciate your stance, but I think that you should wake up, take of the rose-tinted glasses and stop whinging about those people who have a point-of-view that differs from yours.

    Ok, let’s keep Benítez. We may win a few more European Cups, but will be turned more and more into a circus domestically. Rafa claims to have read a few book about our history (or he ordered his wife to read them). Now please tell me where he read that he should tell everyone who would listen that he has rejected yet another contract, that this and that is wrong, others have more money and so on. That’s not the Liverpool way. Neither is to play safety first all of the time. We may not win the league, but I’d prefer to do so with a fight and not cowardly.

    Do you honestly expect Rafa to change his general approach to football matches? He’s been here for almost five years and I don’t get the impression that he ever would.

    One thing has truly be achieved during his time at Anfield (though he’s surely not to blame for all of this). Our owners are divided, our CEO and manager are divided and our supporters are divided. The later I have last experienced, in such an extend, in Houllier’s last year.

  • the original spesh

    Just how bad does Benitez have to get before you stop defending him? He gets a king’s ransom for doing an exceedingly poor job, yet poster after poster blindly defends him, but none of them actually has any arguments any more.
    Our current team is appalling and the results prove this. The results with Keane were much better, and just when he had started clicking (and surely we were prepared to give him a few month’s grace to settle in), Rafa lost the plot completely.
    The squad was thin before selling Keane, afterwards it has become embarrassing.
    We should get rid of Rafa immediately before he does any more damage and give a real manager the chance to pick up the pieces of this season (and let’s face it, even the players will be starting to doubt Rafa after all his baffling decisions), and head towards next season with a feeling of optimism instead of Rafa-induced impending doom. He’s had his chance, he’s had the money and he’s had the time. He’s blown it big-sytle, now sod off back to Spain, you slimy little man (and yes, I don’t find any aspects of his character even vaguely laudable)!!!

  • the original spesh

    Just how bad does Benitez have to get before you stop defending him? He gets a king’s ransom for doing an exceedingly poor job, yet poster after poster blindly defends him, but none of them actually has any arguments any more.
    Our current team is appalling and the results prove this. The results with Keane were much better, and just when he had started clicking (and surely we were prepared to give him a few month’s grace to settle in), Rafa lost the plot completely.
    The squad was thin before selling Keane, afterwards it has become embarrassing.
    We should get rid of Rafa immediately before he does any more damage and give a real manager the chance to pick up the pieces of this season (and let’s face it, even the players will be starting to doubt Rafa after all his baffling decisions), and head towards next season with a feeling of optimism instead of Rafa-induced impending doom. He’s had his chance, he’s had the money and he’s had the time. He’s blown it big-sytle, now sod off back to Spain, you slimy little man (and yes, I don’t find any aspects of his character even vaguely laudable)!!!

  • the original spesh

    Just how bad does Benitez have to get before you stop defending him? He gets a king’s ransom for doing an exceedingly poor job, yet poster after poster blindly defends him, but none of them actually has any arguments any more.
    Our current team is appalling and the results prove this. The results with Keane were much better, and just when he had started clicking (and surely we were prepared to give him a few month’s grace to settle in), Rafa lost the plot completely.
    The squad was thin before selling Keane, afterwards it has become embarrassing.
    We should get rid of Rafa immediately before he does any more damage and give a real manager the chance to pick up the pieces of this season (and let’s face it, even the players will be starting to doubt Rafa after all his baffling decisions), and head towards next season with a feeling of optimism instead of Rafa-induced impending doom. He’s had his chance, he’s had the money and he’s had the time. He’s blown it big-sytle, now sod off back to Spain, you slimy little man (and yes, I don’t find any aspects of his character even vaguely laudable)!!!

  • Bibito

    I have it laughable and disturbing that anyone who has been watching the game football wold want Benitez fired. Again like most fansv I have been frustrated this season, however anytime I lose total faith I ask myself this….do we have a better sqaud or stsrting 11 than man U….resounding No unfortunately. Shoot going into the season I think most people would have as down as 4th best amongst the group formally known asd the Big 4. so following that rationale howver deprsessing it is that we are probably not going to league why on earth should we have been expecting to????? As for those suggesting that we will get Jose, I wonder whether they actually have brains. With our lack of funds there is absolutely ZERO chance that Jose would come hear…I repeat ZERO…I mean for heavens sake he threw his toys out the pram when the owner refusedd to sanction more pirchases for a squad worth upwards of a 100 million. He has done his time with the underdog side looking to punch above their financial weight. Now having gone to Chelsea and Inter who seem to have bottomless pockets why on earth would you join a Liverpool side who clearly have a far more ristrictied budget. Mark my works fellow fans losing Benitez may spell the end for this side. With Man city prorbaqly set to bring in a new manager and wqith him more talent as wel as the likes on Villa I honeslty fear that we will end down thepath of the likes of Spurs and Newcastle….trust me. So called fans seem to think we have some birt hright to win the league,they tens to forget that we were struggling to qualiofy for the CL before Rafa and wining in or habitauly making the semis were merely pipe dreams…..give the man a chance gang he has improved the team all the years he has been with us and I firmly believe he will get it right. And as i stated the extremely short list of mangers who,m I think are on par with Rafas I just firly beleive wouldnt join us..simple as……at the end of the day the manager doesnt play and challenge anyone to name a game were we have failed to create chances…..I genrally think we has got his tactics right in most cases setting out line-ups and formations to take advantage of opponents, but as one commentator yelled in horror on Saturday “you cant legislate for misses like that”
    Un many ways it also really annoys me that fans dont see the game the press is paying with us. i think it is common knwoeldge that we dont have many allies in the press as a club and ceratainly Rafa doenst get anywhere as much respect as he deserves. I mean the way some of these guys go on you woulfd think someone like a Redknapp is a better gaffa than Rafa. A friend of mine once wisely obnserved that the English genrally respect a 4-4-2 game with route one and man to man marking and anything else just makes their heads hurt.( it takes me back to whe nRafa 1st played the 3-5-2 against Newcastle and everyone was up in arms and low and behold we won the game jus as we did a few weeks ago with the same formation. but reading the marrch reports after the game you wouldve thought we lost….I could go on on…the numberof 1 nil wins we have had creating 20+ chances and all the headlines are usally “lucky Liverpool win, just” contrasted with the “champagne football” Man U play against hapless opposition wit hte same score line….we play Inter and WIN and all the talk is about how poor Inter were….United paly them and DRAW and the rave reviews were nausiating…we all know if we were in the position the Gooners are in we would be on the back pages everyday wit hhacks going on about how poor we are, but Aresenal are alowed to wallow in their mediocrity with hardky a peep. WAKE UP FANS…you chose to SUPPORT THIS GREEAT CLUB…SO DO IT….

  • Bibito

    I have it laughable and disturbing that anyone who has been watching the game football wold want Benitez fired. Again like most fansv I have been frustrated this season, however anytime I lose total faith I ask myself this….do we have a better sqaud or stsrting 11 than man U….resounding No unfortunately. Shoot going into the season I think most people would have as down as 4th best amongst the group formally known asd the Big 4. so following that rationale howver deprsessing it is that we are probably not going to league why on earth should we have been expecting to????? As for those suggesting that we will get Jose, I wonder whether they actually have brains. With our lack of funds there is absolutely ZERO chance that Jose would come hear…I repeat ZERO…I mean for heavens sake he threw his toys out the pram when the owner refusedd to sanction more pirchases for a squad worth upwards of a 100 million. He has done his time with the underdog side looking to punch above their financial weight. Now having gone to Chelsea and Inter who seem to have bottomless pockets why on earth would you join a Liverpool side who clearly have a far more ristrictied budget. Mark my works fellow fans losing Benitez may spell the end for this side. With Man city prorbaqly set to bring in a new manager and wqith him more talent as wel as the likes on Villa I honeslty fear that we will end down thepath of the likes of Spurs and Newcastle….trust me. So called fans seem to think we have some birt hright to win the league,they tens to forget that we were struggling to qualiofy for the CL before Rafa and wining in or habitauly making the semis were merely pipe dreams…..give the man a chance gang he has improved the team all the years he has been with us and I firmly believe he will get it right. And as i stated the extremely short list of mangers who,m I think are on par with Rafas I just firly beleive wouldnt join us..simple as……at the end of the day the manager doesnt play and challenge anyone to name a game were we have failed to create chances…..I genrally think we has got his tactics right in most cases setting out line-ups and formations to take advantage of opponents, but as one commentator yelled in horror on Saturday “you cant legislate for misses like that”
    Un many ways it also really annoys me that fans dont see the game the press is paying with us. i think it is common knwoeldge that we dont have many allies in the press as a club and ceratainly Rafa doenst get anywhere as much respect as he deserves. I mean the way some of these guys go on you woulfd think someone like a Redknapp is a better gaffa than Rafa. A friend of mine once wisely obnserved that the English genrally respect a 4-4-2 game with route one and man to man marking and anything else just makes their heads hurt.( it takes me back to whe nRafa 1st played the 3-5-2 against Newcastle and everyone was up in arms and low and behold we won the game jus as we did a few weeks ago with the same formation. but reading the marrch reports after the game you wouldve thought we lost….I could go on on…the numberof 1 nil wins we have had creating 20+ chances and all the headlines are usally “lucky Liverpool win, just” contrasted with the “champagne football” Man U play against hapless opposition wit hte same score line….we play Inter and WIN and all the talk is about how poor Inter were….United paly them and DRAW and the rave reviews were nausiating…we all know if we were in the position the Gooners are in we would be on the back pages everyday wit hhacks going on about how poor we are, but Aresenal are alowed to wallow in their mediocrity with hardky a peep. WAKE UP FANS…you chose to SUPPORT THIS GREEAT CLUB…SO DO IT….

  • Bibito

    I have it laughable and disturbing that anyone who has been watching the game football wold want Benitez fired. Again like most fansv I have been frustrated this season, however anytime I lose total faith I ask myself this….do we have a better sqaud or stsrting 11 than man U….resounding No unfortunately. Shoot going into the season I think most people would have as down as 4th best amongst the group formally known asd the Big 4. so following that rationale howver deprsessing it is that we are probably not going to league why on earth should we have been expecting to????? As for those suggesting that we will get Jose, I wonder whether they actually have brains. With our lack of funds there is absolutely ZERO chance that Jose would come hear…I repeat ZERO…I mean for heavens sake he threw his toys out the pram when the owner refusedd to sanction more pirchases for a squad worth upwards of a 100 million. He has done his time with the underdog side looking to punch above their financial weight. Now having gone to Chelsea and Inter who seem to have bottomless pockets why on earth would you join a Liverpool side who clearly have a far more ristrictied budget. Mark my works fellow fans losing Benitez may spell the end for this side. With Man city prorbaqly set to bring in a new manager and wqith him more talent as wel as the likes on Villa I honeslty fear that we will end down thepath of the likes of Spurs and Newcastle….trust me. So called fans seem to think we have some birt hright to win the league,they tens to forget that we were struggling to qualiofy for the CL before Rafa and wining in or habitauly making the semis were merely pipe dreams…..give the man a chance gang he has improved the team all the years he has been with us and I firmly believe he will get it right. And as i stated the extremely short list of mangers who,m I think are on par with Rafas I just firly beleive wouldnt join us..simple as……at the end of the day the manager doesnt play and challenge anyone to name a game were we have failed to create chances…..I genrally think we has got his tactics right in most cases setting out line-ups and formations to take advantage of opponents, but as one commentator yelled in horror on Saturday “you cant legislate for misses like that”
    Un many ways it also really annoys me that fans dont see the game the press is paying with us. i think it is common knwoeldge that we dont have many allies in the press as a club and ceratainly Rafa doenst get anywhere as much respect as he deserves. I mean the way some of these guys go on you woulfd think someone like a Redknapp is a better gaffa than Rafa. A friend of mine once wisely obnserved that the English genrally respect a 4-4-2 game with route one and man to man marking and anything else just makes their heads hurt.( it takes me back to whe nRafa 1st played the 3-5-2 against Newcastle and everyone was up in arms and low and behold we won the game jus as we did a few weeks ago with the same formation. but reading the marrch reports after the game you wouldve thought we lost….I could go on on…the numberof 1 nil wins we have had creating 20+ chances and all the headlines are usally “lucky Liverpool win, just” contrasted with the “champagne football” Man U play against hapless opposition wit hte same score line….we play Inter and WIN and all the talk is about how poor Inter were….United paly them and DRAW and the rave reviews were nausiating…we all know if we were in the position the Gooners are in we would be on the back pages everyday wit hhacks going on about how poor we are, but Aresenal are alowed to wallow in their mediocrity with hardky a peep. WAKE UP FANS…you chose to SUPPORT THIS GREEAT CLUB…SO DO IT….

  • Bibito

    excuse the gross mispellings, but you get the general jist of where I was going, just be careful what you wish for…..Walk on!!! Chins up. YNWA

  • Bibito

    excuse the gross mispellings, but you get the general jist of where I was going, just be careful what you wish for…..Walk on!!! Chins up. YNWA

  • Bibito

    excuse the gross mispellings, but you get the general jist of where I was going, just be careful what you wish for…..Walk on!!! Chins up. YNWA

  • Pieman the Third

    anteater you clearly don’t appreciate my stance or you wouldn’t be telling me to take of rose tinted glasses. If you want to wallow in self-pity be my guest but at least do it with some kind of perspective.

    Benitez set his team up to try to win. His record of trophys and steady improvement of our clubs position in the league and unless you forgot we are ranked #1 in Europe. This without an Abramovich or the steadiness of ManU to back him up. I think his approach to matches is just fine. This is football and you can’t win them all – ask United when we serenaded them out of Anfield or Chelsea or Arsenal or Juventus or Real Madrid or AC Milan or Inter Milan. Nor can you play like Brazil every week or even every month. That kind of football is not for a team in our position. Ask Arsenal how its been working for them since 2004.

    I can’t actually believe you think the European Cup is a worthless endeavour. Do you not realise the reason players like Argentinas captain and the runner up to World Player of the Year and the rest came to our faltering club was because we started doing well in Europe? Its definitely not because we were winning the league year after year or because the badge said ‘Liverpool’.

    On his contract, aren’t you actually happy our manager actually cares more about building his team the right way and not being told who he can buy by a muppet and a pair of clueless Yanks or just taking his salary and wasting away any real chance at the league we had like so many managers before him. I for one am glad hes not having any nonsense and wants the same level of control Wenger and Ferg-hole have – is that to much to ask? Or shall he be a yesman? We know what type of manager you’d like then.

    Finally, please stop living in the past as this guy is not Gerard Houllier and cannot be compared. If you haven’t the patience to win the league the old-fashioned way – by building a team year on year then there are examples elsewhere of get-wins-quick i.e. Man City and Chelsea.

    If this is rose-tinted defending of Benitez then bring on the labels- however, I call it being a fan AND being a supporter. He has given me enough reason (not optimism which is different) to support his ways of making us into winners.

    We’ll agree to disagree but while you disagree how about thinking progressively instead of pessimistically.

    anteater, a 30 year supporter, show us how to support your team.

  • Pieman the Third

    anteater you clearly don’t appreciate my stance or you wouldn’t be telling me to take of rose tinted glasses. If you want to wallow in self-pity be my guest but at least do it with some kind of perspective.

    Benitez set his team up to try to win. His record of trophys and steady improvement of our clubs position in the league and unless you forgot we are ranked #1 in Europe. This without an Abramovich or the steadiness of ManU to back him up. I think his approach to matches is just fine. This is football and you can’t win them all – ask United when we serenaded them out of Anfield or Chelsea or Arsenal or Juventus or Real Madrid or AC Milan or Inter Milan. Nor can you play like Brazil every week or even every month. That kind of football is not for a team in our position. Ask Arsenal how its been working for them since 2004.

    I can’t actually believe you think the European Cup is a worthless endeavour. Do you not realise the reason players like Argentinas captain and the runner up to World Player of the Year and the rest came to our faltering club was because we started doing well in Europe? Its definitely not because we were winning the league year after year or because the badge said ‘Liverpool’.

    On his contract, aren’t you actually happy our manager actually cares more about building his team the right way and not being told who he can buy by a muppet and a pair of clueless Yanks or just taking his salary and wasting away any real chance at the league we had like so many managers before him. I for one am glad hes not having any nonsense and wants the same level of control Wenger and Ferg-hole have – is that to much to ask? Or shall he be a yesman? We know what type of manager you’d like then.

    Finally, please stop living in the past as this guy is not Gerard Houllier and cannot be compared. If you haven’t the patience to win the league the old-fashioned way – by building a team year on year then there are examples elsewhere of get-wins-quick i.e. Man City and Chelsea.

    If this is rose-tinted defending of Benitez then bring on the labels- however, I call it being a fan AND being a supporter. He has given me enough reason (not optimism which is different) to support his ways of making us into winners.

    We’ll agree to disagree but while you disagree how about thinking progressively instead of pessimistically.

    anteater, a 30 year supporter, show us how to support your team.

  • Pieman the Third

    anteater you clearly don’t appreciate my stance or you wouldn’t be telling me to take of rose tinted glasses. If you want to wallow in self-pity be my guest but at least do it with some kind of perspective.

    Benitez set his team up to try to win. His record of trophys and steady improvement of our clubs position in the league and unless you forgot we are ranked #1 in Europe. This without an Abramovich or the steadiness of ManU to back him up. I think his approach to matches is just fine. This is football and you can’t win them all – ask United when we serenaded them out of Anfield or Chelsea or Arsenal or Juventus or Real Madrid or AC Milan or Inter Milan. Nor can you play like Brazil every week or even every month. That kind of football is not for a team in our position. Ask Arsenal how its been working for them since 2004.

    I can’t actually believe you think the European Cup is a worthless endeavour. Do you not realise the reason players like Argentinas captain and the runner up to World Player of the Year and the rest came to our faltering club was because we started doing well in Europe? Its definitely not because we were winning the league year after year or because the badge said ‘Liverpool’.

    On his contract, aren’t you actually happy our manager actually cares more about building his team the right way and not being told who he can buy by a muppet and a pair of clueless Yanks or just taking his salary and wasting away any real chance at the league we had like so many managers before him. I for one am glad hes not having any nonsense and wants the same level of control Wenger and Ferg-hole have – is that to much to ask? Or shall he be a yesman? We know what type of manager you’d like then.

    Finally, please stop living in the past as this guy is not Gerard Houllier and cannot be compared. If you haven’t the patience to win the league the old-fashioned way – by building a team year on year then there are examples elsewhere of get-wins-quick i.e. Man City and Chelsea.

    If this is rose-tinted defending of Benitez then bring on the labels- however, I call it being a fan AND being a supporter. He has given me enough reason (not optimism which is different) to support his ways of making us into winners.

    We’ll agree to disagree but while you disagree how about thinking progressively instead of pessimistically.

    anteater, a 30 year supporter, show us how to support your team.

  • CanadianKopite

    You can see it on the players faces. The way Gerrard glares at El Zhar when he makes the mistake with the short corner. We will ALWAYS be behind the team.But we will not BLINDLY follow a manager who has continued to make mistakes. He has been here for almost four seasons. Oh that Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch could have had that long. Rafa should know by now where our priority is – the Prem. He should know by now how to field a team, how and when to sub, and how to win games not just ‘not lose’.
    We will always Walk On With Hope In Our Hearts – hope that we will get a new manager who will Walk On with us and not walk all over us
    We have become the ‘this is our season’ joke of the Prem. We need a manger who will pick teasm to win every Prem game and players who will play like Carra and Stevie.
    And please don’t go on about a midweek game against Real Madrid as needing to rest players. Boro played on the same night in the FA Cup and they seemed to cope.
    As far as the ‘Liverpool way’ – there is no place for Rafa in the ‘Liverpool way’. Let’s admit it and get on with the search for a new manager.

  • CanadianKopite

    You can see it on the players faces. The way Gerrard glares at El Zhar when he makes the mistake with the short corner. We will ALWAYS be behind the team.But we will not BLINDLY follow a manager who has continued to make mistakes. He has been here for almost four seasons. Oh that Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch could have had that long. Rafa should know by now where our priority is – the Prem. He should know by now how to field a team, how and when to sub, and how to win games not just ‘not lose’.
    We will always Walk On With Hope In Our Hearts – hope that we will get a new manager who will Walk On with us and not walk all over us
    We have become the ‘this is our season’ joke of the Prem. We need a manger who will pick teasm to win every Prem game and players who will play like Carra and Stevie.
    And please don’t go on about a midweek game against Real Madrid as needing to rest players. Boro played on the same night in the FA Cup and they seemed to cope.
    As far as the ‘Liverpool way’ – there is no place for Rafa in the ‘Liverpool way’. Let’s admit it and get on with the search for a new manager.

  • CanadianKopite

    You can see it on the players faces. The way Gerrard glares at El Zhar when he makes the mistake with the short corner. We will ALWAYS be behind the team.But we will not BLINDLY follow a manager who has continued to make mistakes. He has been here for almost four seasons. Oh that Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch could have had that long. Rafa should know by now where our priority is – the Prem. He should know by now how to field a team, how and when to sub, and how to win games not just ‘not lose’.
    We will always Walk On With Hope In Our Hearts – hope that we will get a new manager who will Walk On with us and not walk all over us
    We have become the ‘this is our season’ joke of the Prem. We need a manger who will pick teasm to win every Prem game and players who will play like Carra and Stevie.
    And please don’t go on about a midweek game against Real Madrid as needing to rest players. Boro played on the same night in the FA Cup and they seemed to cope.
    As far as the ‘Liverpool way’ – there is no place for Rafa in the ‘Liverpool way’. Let’s admit it and get on with the search for a new manager.

  • DeepRed

    Come on Max…your comment is just plain silly: “anteater – but where does that get us? no-where. Some fans are very quick to criticise Rafa for his public outbursts, when they’re doing exactly the same themselves”.
    Very poor analogy comparing fans with a manager. Us fans don;t get paid to run a team, we don’t give interviews, and we don’t have an army of reporters interested in what we have to say. Our “public outbursts” don’t create headlines or tv news. Hope Rafa doesn’t become Houllier but he is well on his way unfortunately.

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