wonderful stuff gerry, but…
i disagree about zenden because he wasn’t entirely useless. he provided red color on the left side of the pitch. having said that kewell was equally useless. i would have used bellamy right from the start of the second half but like you i can’t understand why rafa was obsessed with zenden and stayed with him.
alonso was also useless. bad passes, bad tackling, bad shooting and bad everything. he should have been taken off instead of monster mash. another decision i’m puzzled about.
and the last thing i’m puzzled about is why the f*&% was couch introduced only in the last 10 mins? none of our guys upfront won any good headers all night long except for that rare header that got gerrard going, so why not bring in couch? his shot that dodo had to block alone justified bringing him on during a night when our shots on goal was shite.
lastly, monster mash and pennant worked their balls off. gerrard, carragher and finnan did well, but gerrard’s misses cost us. for me, monster mash and pennant should share the man-of-the-match prize.

Hear hear Gerry, bowed but proud. I thought the team played really well and the support – as usual – was terrific. The ref. as you said “sucked” – stopped the game early, made both teams wait 5 minutes before allowing them to substitute players, and let a”hand ball” goal to stand, let alone whistling as if he had swolled it.
If you paid any attention to the ballywho being played out in the media you could have been forgiven in thinking the teams had swopped shirts before the game. Milan that beautiful game playing, mid-field dominating, power shooting team retreated to their third of the field, while Liverpool the slow starting, “squeeze the life out of the game” team came out with fire in their bellies hungry for the win. But I think Rafa got the tactics wrong, again, against Milan. By putting left & right wingers on the field it was obvious the tactic was race to the by-line and cross or cut it back, and most of the time it was cross. But where was the target man, Crouch our top scorer? I have a great admiration for Dirk Kuyt but he is only, what, 5’6″? And what is it with Rafa and his blindness to lame ducks? Last time he played an injured Harry Kewel, this time Zenden. Also, Steven Gerrard plays well from the middle field but he looked a bit lost so far forward, also I think he was trying too hard hence the poor finishes & passes – by his standars. And without those charges from middle field we never or rarely mounted an attack from the centre of the field which made our play all too predictable – yet we still rained in balls into Milan’s penalty area to no avail, well one worked.
So now it is dream team time. Who (or is it whom?) will Rafa sign? I don’t think there will be any surprise exits, except maybe up front. Mr. Benitez, during the last three years you have done dam good overall in the market place, now show us what Liverpool F.C. will look like next season.

Ah well I’m ver it now, congrats to Milan. it’s what you do with it, when you have it that counts and they did that.

Did anyone notice Hicks congradulating Mr B after the match, seemed a very very frosty response from Rafa. Maybe I just spend to much time watching body language but something didn’t seem right.

So Mr B comes out in the media saying stop talking start buying. Well well lets see what happens. Rafa has spent 100 million pounds in 3 years so far, but look at some of the names he bought, Nunez, Gonzales, Pelligrino, Paleta, Bellamy, Zenden, Josemi, Kronkamp.

But then turns up some rare diamonds, Masch and Xabi, Pepe.

As you can see by this list, spending is the worlds biggest gamble. Now spending nearly as much as that in one season is going to be very tedious. Especially to Rick Parry.

Should we have paid the extra amount for Simao, looking back a year would we even remember the extra money.

Mr B has proved a thrifty buyer who refuses to pay over the premium, but does he now just have to bend over and pay the price.

Mr B came out firing on all cylinders yesterday, so I wonder whats going on at Anfield, something we don’t know about.

Bring OWEN back for less than 10 million and you’ll have a bargain.

by the way did anyone notice Mr B comments he said we have two players we could buy right now for 15-20 million euros. Doesn’t sound like he buying an English players does it. Maybe just a slip of the tongue.

Finally congrats to our boys, you can only give everthing you have and thats what you gave. I think this was tipified by Milans second goal, our defence was so shattered they couldn’t muster the energy to get back on the goal line, they had given all.

Great blog once again Gerry.

Ps, Sorry lads, but did anyone catch that disgusting piece from the Vital Football (Chelsea Site) Commiserations to Liverpool, it’s fucking up themselves disgusting, the editor should be dismissed, it’s disgraceful.

Congratulations to Milan!!!!

Gerry,

I agree 100% on your assessment of Zenden. He was shite and gave the ball away so often he should have been wearing white. We would have been better off with 10 on the pitch.

I also agree with you comments on Masch and was confused by his coming off rather than Alonso, given Masch was the man keeping Kaka out of the game.

Pennant has shown he is up to this level of football, as you say he just needs to improve his crossing.

I thought Gerrard played very well as the link man between the Midfield, and the Wings. Watching the game Gerrard was everywhere. It is a shame he wasn’t able to thread his shot past the goal keeper when he was clear.

Kuyt, in my opinion was very poor. I admire his work rate, but felt the lines he ran were poor. Positionally I thought that Kuyt was poor for nearly the entire match. The problem with Kuyt is he never gets thru the defense to allow Gerrard and Co. to play the thru balls to him, so you have to pass to kuyt and then he needs to beat 2 defenders. I felt for the structure Benitiz employed with Gerrard as the link man, bellamy who runs great lines thru defenses would have been a better option.

Regarding the Ref, I have to agree, he was awfully Whistle happy, except when Gatusso was involved. The Minute Kewell came on to replace Zenden, he was double teamed. Gatusso was consistently allowed to trip, barge and man handle Kewell and not once was he pinged for it. Unfortunately Riise didn’t notice that Kewell was being double teamed, which was allowing him the freedom to get forward constantly. Perhaps if he had realized, Kewell wouldn’t have been double teamed. Maybe Kewell would have done nothing, but he was never given the chance.

Regarding the lack of spark in the second half, I felt this was due to the enormous workrate put in by Gerrard, Kuyt, and Pennant in the first half. I feel we put all our eggs into the first half basket, and when we came off empty, the lads didn’t have the legs to play with the same vigour in the second stanza.

I hope now Benitiz is backed in the Transfer market so that he can get the players he really wants, not the ones who are third and fourth on his list.

Long Live Liverpool Forever
YNWA.

A massive applause and congrats to Rafa and the lads for there effort and I applaud Rafa’s comments today as well about paying the right price to help us get back up to where we belong. The final really showed how some of the buys we’ve had to go for rather than our top targets just aren’t the players for LFC.

Rafa’s comments are the sounds of someone who wants to win everything and not just sit and buy what we can get in the transfer market which is great for LFC and fans.
Looking forward to see who he’s on about and who’ll be wearing red next year. Not sure about Etos temprement and would like to see a couple of more British faces in the team at the right price, which I’m sure is difficult with the ridiculous amount of money around at the moment.

Would of liked to See MG stay one more season but if his heart isn’t in it RB new it was time for him to go. It’s a shame because I think he just needed a long run in the team. Would love to see Rafas team sheet pick itself next season in every match and not rotate as much.

The players last night gave it there all and a felt sorry for JC as you said Gerry he couldn’t hardly walk at the end of the game. The backline did great though worried about Riise’s defending he seems to be getting worse so prehaps should push him to left mid position.
Hope we keep monster masch as he was our player of the night and justifies a longer stay. Bye bye Bolo enjoy Holland. Don’t agree with ya Gerry on zero but mybe just 2 even if it was for both his bootlaces being tied on the night.
Now my problem is with Kuyt he’s a great team player but when he should be concetrating on scoring he ‘s out on the left or right crossing it in for himself if he could get there (More of a reflection on the service unfortunately) or defending in midfield. I’m sure he’ll click and cant say anything about his pride and passion but wish he would just sit on the defenders for more of the game and just have a blast at goal more often.

Today feel down but not out and following LFC in times like these one thing is for certain YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE!

Gaz, I see your points a bit about some of Rafa’s buys – but don’t forget, he’s been working on a bit of a budget and trying to revamp almost the entire squad (actually, to be honest, the entire squad). Hence he might have spent a lot, but it hasn’t been in a few positions, it’s been in almost all of them. And guys like Nunez, Pellegrino, Zenden were basically free – and when you haven’t got the spending power, sometimes you have to take what you can get and try to get some mileage out of them. This is why we’ve ended up with some mediocre players and this is why Rafa knows we aren’t as close to the Premiership title as some people are fooling themselves.

I’m with Rafa – the club needs to act, not talk, about moving forward. The signs are good but actions speak louder than words. Why is it not surprising to see/hear about the Mancs splashing 20 million on someone, but it is so hard to see us doing the same? We need to forget this only-at-a-good-price mentality and just do whatever it takes to get the best players. You don’t win trophies for getting bargains.

Good blog. Was completely heartbroken at the end of the game. Would have like to seen Crouch come on earlier, and maybe Bellamy come in instead of Kewell
Concerning Rafa’s buys you have to remember that now he has had time to build a foundation and if he denies that I will lose faith. Mascherano was probably the last piece in the center and now he has to bring in top-class wingers and a proven striker. That definition is blurry though. The one thing i admire about the man is that his axe is so quick. Gonzales didnt live up to expectations and hes being shipped out right away.
Rafa has to get every transfer right this time. Lets face it. Its alot easier buying players, when you dont have to fill up gaps across the whole field.
Im just praying that he starts next season campaign with the solid team we have now and doesnt experiment with the new players in the first games. Getting a good start in the next season is numeros unos in my mind now. We cant compete if we are always trailing behind, and lose the competition in November.

On the whole a fantastic review of the final.

My main disagreement would be with Pennant’s performance. He saw plenty of the ball, no doubt the effort was there, but all of that means nothing if you can’t supply a bloody decent cross. Every cross going too deep and no where near the danger area.

I don’t know why Bellamy has never been tried out there as another option. When he was at Blackburn he was tearing teams apart with his pace and his crosses were quality. Anybody got opinions on this.

As far as Bolo goes I don’t think his surname is Zenden, rather that’s the frigging planet that he comes from – not only a crap player he’s a freak.

Still gutted.
jonesy
ps. that bloody alarm clock’s in the bin

Fair assessment Gerry. I have to agree with Jonesy however when it comes to Pennant. I felt he tracked back well, got into the positions and then had a brain fart and did nothing with the ball.

Instead of taking Monster off I thought Rafa might of subbed Pennant for Crouch and put Gerrard on the right. That way we would get decent crosses into the box from where the space was and also maintain the defensive security in the middle.

Interesting Rafa’s comments though, he seems a bit pissed off and agressive when it comes to investment in new players. Saying things like he’s fed up of talking about it, sign them now etc. I hope there isn’t anything more sinister. Rafa doesn’t suffer fools and perhaps frustrated that he can’t compete with the mancs and the chavs. I would hate it to happen but I wouldn’t be surprised should he leave the end of next year if the owners fail to support his transfers. For the clubs sake I hope the owners support him and act now.

In Rafa We Trust

Ps. Jonesy your alarm clock in the bin did make me laugh.

Nice blog, Gerry: sums up exactly what I thought, except I’d give Alonso less than 6 because, as usual on big occasions, he failed to take charge in midfield and deliver the killing balls that Kuyt was crying out for – and his tackling is terrible. The team did us proud and competed well with a very good team.

But, like ColinLA and Mook, I really couldn’t understand Mr Benny’s tactics. As you said, why does Zenden get anywhere near the team? And I could just about understand starting with only one stiker with five in midfield, but not after we went one down. We urgently needed to respond with a goal, but poor Kuyt was left all alone, with few decent passes, until Crouch came on much to late with about 15 minutes left.

As always, Kuyt worked his guts out, but he needs passes like the one that laid on their second goal. All he got was hopeful crosses from Pennant (who had a pretty good game). I think Kuyt would get loads of goals if he had imaginative service, on the ground. Let’s hope Mr B can sign a creative supplier in his big spending spree.

Guys, again I don’t want to add too much as i agree with most of whats been said. However I did notice Rafa and Hicks and he did seeem to be giving the brush off. Hope there isn’t anything underlying in all this and I hope we don’t start losing focus on whats required.

On to the “demands” alledgedly made. This concerned me as 1 of the plusses from Rafa is that he makes a team very competitive even when having limited funds. I think he’s done well at LFC and the step up to champions is probably the acquisition of 1 or 2 key players. Yes we need to spend big but every team in the world now knows this so expect zero’s to be added to every player we want.

I’ve always believed our strikers are good its just the service that is required. So quality balls in (something that just hasn’t happened all season) and thats pretty much all we need. The only reason I’d opt for another striker is because of the attitude of Bellamy or the over enthused midfield/striker wanting to cover every blade of grass – twice! Minor details in the grand scheme of things. What I don’t want to see is demands, by players, managers or even the owners. We’ve alot of positives and as Stevie said “these are good time” etc etc

So heads up and the furure is still very bright!

The difference in the quality of the finishing was decisive, Inzaghi took his chance but whilst Gerrard missed his. It just wasn’t meant to be.

Gazmaninaus, where did you get your figure of £100m? Alonso has been our most expensive player since Rafa took charge – 10.75 mill. Don’t forget we got a number of freebies as well. The fact is that Rafa has not had the type of money he needed for the big players he wanted.

I can’t believe the drivel I’ve read about Rafa in the press in the last couple of days. Rafa is the man and the job.

Gerry,

Thanks again. Reading all the comments about how proud everybody is helped ease the pain.

Rafa has done a brilliant job but these are my main comments on the match.
1. Zenden, if you are going to sell somebody on a Thursday how can they be good enough for a champoins league final the previous day ?
2. Kuyt ran himself into the ground and despite the late goal, I think Crouch and Bellamy should have gotten a half each.
3. A champoins league final is a one off. Why start with 2 of your top strikers on the bench ?
4. Alonso should have gone off instead of Mashy.
5. I know the defenders were tired but even if the off side trap is sprung somebody should have chased back. That shot took forever to cross the line and I think thye could have blocked it.

We need to sell the obvious players and raise 15m and add that to the 40m and buy 2 or 3 top class players, out wide and up front.

Neil

Because of the formation and tactics Rafa wanted for this game, I think the reason Rafa went for Zenden was:
1) Rafa knows Gonzales can’t cut it, hence his departure.
2) Harry wasn’t fit enough to play 90 mins according to Rafa and he probably wanted him to last through extra time should it have come to that.
3) Garcia out injured so he couldn’t play there.
4) Aurellio was injured so couldn’t move Riise up there.
However what doesn’t make sense is why he didn’t use Arbeola left back like against Barca with Riise playing forward. Unless he doesn’t think Arbeola can cut it either.
It’s easy to see Rafa’s frustration when he was forcecd to play Zenden in a CL final because he hasn’t been given the funds necessary to have the right players.

Can’t wait to see what Rafa buys, very exciting.

spot on gerry

I had a little tear in my eye before and after the game. before when i saw zenden was starting and after, well, you canguess why. i had the same feeling as you did afterwards and i did feel a little odd after i had gotten over the shock that gattuso and his OAP stars had beaten us but at the end of the day you have to be hugely proud of our lads. they gave us another memorable run in europe, showed them that even with the team we have we beat the spanish, dutch and former english champions over 2 legs and i can only take positives from this season plus the winds of change are blowing with cash from hicks and gillette and rafa’s vision then now is better than ever to be a red so all i can say is bring on next season!

Alright Gerry/Lads. Just home from Athens, licking me wounds and in need of a few days R&R. Oh well, roll on Moscow!
YNWA

It might just be me but does anybody else think we might actually lose Benitez if he doesnt get the cash that he feels he needs to compete? I for one am very unsettled at the moment. Any comments?

I am going to go for conspiracy theories with Mr Benny as I sometimes cannot understand his substitutions. So, I’m going for… Mr Benny decided to swap Finnan with Arbeloa because he wanted to show the news bosses how a lack of quality in the team can cause us the big beartbreak and loss of a cup final we could and should have won. Maybe he didn’t put on more strikers “time” because this could in directly show a lack of finishing quality for the un trained eye. Then when we lost the final he would have much more reason to demand money for the players he likes to have.

OK, next on Mr Benny demanding he gets the cash he needs. This is where we have a manager who knows we need to make a real purchase to make a difference in challenging for honours. This is the sound of a manager no longer looking for “bargains”. And without TOO many changes to the team,I do hope he gets the reasonable support needed, meaning without over spending on too many players. 2 players with a 40m budget is reasonable. Spending 200m with a total makeover as what some papers have come out with recently is overspending unreasonably. IF you need a table get a table, no need to go for the table+lamp+spotlight+booze+wallmirror+phone. Though getting a booze along the way is still within reason.

As for Mr Benny leaving, I hope not. I am not getting any feelings of such. So far, the new bosses have said they will back him up. And now really is the time for action so what Mr Benny has said is showing he knows what he want and want the club to show their commitment towards the future of the club itself. Sometimes I do feel we need a change in the management if we are slow to act. For me, I have always found Mr Rick Parry to be too slow to act on things. Not having a mind set for future and current opportunities the club possesses. So, a reminder has been isssued by Mr Benny and I hope there will be a mutual committed response.

nice log,

IMO Rafa is the culprit.

1. He didn’t find replacements for Hamann and smicer. That’s experience.
2. He didn’t field Hyppia. Again, that’s experience.
3. He assigned two “best” defenders to attend an ageing striker and they lost him. That’s sad.

Hi Gerry, you’re spot on as usual. I want to say that on this very blog earlier in the year when we couldn’t win to save ourselves, I critisised Rafa and said that he didn’t seem to be able to get decent results out of the players. I formally retract this: he is one of, if not THE best managers in the world. His tactical prowess has had us in positions to beat superior opponents if we could only have scored. I think the Champs League final showed that we had the plan, but not the players.
If only one thing comes out of our defeat, I hope it is that the new owners could see that the planning was there, but the squad wasn’t up to the job. this may help them to shell out some cash.
I look forward to seeing some shit hot signings in the summer, plus Rafa giving the arse to some of the useless pricks like Zenden. I’m sure Watford would buy him.

Gerry + lad’s, has anybody thought how Rafa felt at the final whistle i bet he was sicker than the players and the fans put together and showed this when he bumped into Hick’s, Stevie G was right in assessing that WE were’nt good enough on the night, but and a big but, we are all there when we are winning, but also there when we lose, let the wind’s of change come and let Rafa spend at Harrods instead of Tesco’s.
Like all the lad’s on this blog, i also was proud of the boys but thought of what might have been if the heirarchy had’nt sat with their finger’s up their arse’s and done something positive earlier in the season, it’s a sad day when the only option the boss had was to pick Zenden ( Liverpool’s answer to Jake the peg ), also i will never question Rafa’s substitions as he has more knowledge of the game than most.
Another season to look forward to, but this time a bettr feeling in my gut’s.
theredman YNWA

I reckon that the Rafa/Gillett thing was no more than the fact that Rafa was devastated that we lost, and didn’t want any hugs or kisses from someone who (at the moment) doesn’t understand just how pissed Rafa and most of the players get when we loose.

Gillette and Hicks have both mentioned that they told David Moores that they knew what they were getting into when they bought the club, but since they’ve been here they were blown away by the supporters, and just how important the club is to them. This leads me to believe that they don’t know just how hard we take defeats.

Also, did you see the throwing of the money in the pre match interview? Very embarrising to me to be honest. I couldn’t ever see David Moores doing this, could you?

A well, we got what we wanted – investment. Lets just hope that they deliver now. Rafa has done his part, it’s up the the owners to do a Jerry Maguire and show us the money……

YNWA

Congrats to the Lads for the way they played in Athens.
But now it’s time for Rafa to get shut of more than a few of them..
Bill Shankly said ”
The League is our bread and butter”
So Rafa ..cup finals are a nice day out
but the true mark of a Champoin is winning the League…
It’s time for this Liverpool Team to do just that.
Let’s Hope Hicks and Gillette give him the money to buy the players he wants..
and then no excuses . Win the Prem…

I can’t understand how could Rafa tactics be wrong while they didn’t create any chance and we did and missed?

Gerry and Lads, I have been reading over here that we are just about to launch bids for Alves, Millito and Huntlearjar or something.

Now one report said that Hicks personally agreed terms and transfer for Huntlear (whatever) for 12.5 millions pounds.

Another report said that Millito and Alves would be around 13 million each.

My question is this, are these pound figures in the regions of 15-20 million euros. How many euros make a pound or is it the other way.

Raffa said he had two on the table as we speak.

Finally Alves might have boundless energy but the bastard can’t shoot. missed a penalty and a sitter in the EUFA cup final.

I scan the Internet everyday, still not one player signed, is it going to be another Summer of Empty
Promises by Parry and the new Owners?
When we miss out on all the Cream and end up
with the milk at the bottom of the Bottle?