Surprised he lasted this long tbh

Torres will play even if Benitez has to wheel him around the pitch himself




[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/09/10/21/SOCCER_Liverpool_Benitez.htmlLiverpool boss Rafael Benitez is facing up to the worst injury crisis of his five years at the Reds' helm ahead of Sunday's visit of champions Manchester United.[/url

What players are involved in this crisis? I can only think of three, possibly four; Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson, Steven Gerrard and Albert Riera (?)

Would you not put that down to poor management decisions?

Martin Kelly is out he'd have been a starter and there is a bug going around the under 13's team so that's another 6 added to that list....maybe Uefa will give them special dispensation

The complete lack of quality in the Liverpool side is firmly coming home to bite them in the a$$.

Reina is a fine keeper, but from there Liverpool are weak. Both fullbacks are below par, the centre backs just as questionable. Carragher doesn't have the same invincability about him anymore, he looks very exposed at times and is a weakness.

Liverpool's midfield is Mr Gerrard and Benaiyoun (SP?) who is a fine player, without him they are terrible and they only have Torres up front who warrants a mention.

Benitez is terrible in the transfer market. He's signs so many average players and spends so much money doing it that Liverpool will never win the league under him. The likes of Krygiakos, Lucas, Vorinin, Aurelio, Kuyt, Babel, Agger, Insua, Skrtel, Ngog are all Benitez buys and wouldn't get a game at any of the genuinely big clubs in England.

As painful as it is that's a pretty accurate view of Liverpool at present and Benitez. The only thing Benitez has in his favour are those two clowns that own the club, they are so unpopular that he escapes the criticism he rightly deserves.

BTW Liverpool are a genuinely big club by anybody's reckoning.

some people really do need to get a life

I agree Danny, imagine making something like that up.

So Liverpool in crisis, almost out of the CL and the title and its only October, injuries galore and a game looming against Utd.

Still I would not be surprised if Liverpool won.

No way is Daniel Agger or Skrtel average. Agger, before his injuries, was our best defender and easily one of the best in the prem. Skrtel, since he's arrived here, has been our best defender and both he and Agger have been two of his best buys. Sure, Skrtel's form of late is poor, but so is the majority of the sides, it's hard to perform well in a position where you're regularly exposed because of those around you.

Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio, Mascherano, Aquilani, Gerrard, Benayoun and Torres, for me, should be the first names on the teamsheet every week. However, it appears that, if one of those players are injured or in a bit of poor form, we have nobody else to step up to the plate. When we have everybody fit and playing, we're one of the world's best sides as we shown at the back end of last season, however, our squad depth is non-existent and Rafa must take some of the blame for that, as well as the owners. He's usually had to sell to buy, often being given around £20m net each summer to spend, however, at times, I believe he's sold the wrong players. Players like Sissoko, Bellamy and Crouch are more than good enough to still be here, but they were sold on, whilst the likes of Lucas, Kuyt and Babel are still here. Sure, people will say Crouch had a year left and wanted regular football, but, for me, he warranted regular football in his last season at our club, at least more regular football than Kuyt, who was utterly woeful for the majority of that season.

I'm as worried as anybody, simply because we're in such a bad situation, we might have to start rushing players back, which will result in a similar situation to this time last year, where Torres was consistently injured and we kept getting those 0-0's. I'd also be interested to see how Benitez looks at January, in the past, he's brought in some pretty good signings that have changed our season, such as: Mascherano and Skrtel over recent years, whilst selling Keane was also a positive on our season last year.

If I thought Utd would go for it I would be confident for Sunday, however as it is a big game we will play the ultra negative 4-5-1 again (see nal at home) and claim it is a 4-3-3.

Liverpool are there for the taking but I fear Ferguson won't have the balls to really go for it.

In ways, yes. Voronin should never have been at the club; Lucas should have been sold a long time ago. So, in ways, yes, poor management decisions; however, the sale of Alonso was out of Rafa's hands and I don't buy into the whole situation of the 2008 summer leading to him leaving in 2009. He was always gonna leave for an ambitious project like that of Madrid's. However, the signing of Aquilani, for me, will prove to be a good one, but the thing is, he's missed two months and we could be out of all worthy competitions by the time he's back.

can see your lot killing us

Whilst continual whinging about lack of funds has earned him an undeserved amount of sympathy, Rafa Benitez’s failure to bring through a single young player of any note during his five years at Anfield is pretty damning. Both United and Arsenal have a number of young players who have been developed through the clubs’ feeder teams (albeit often poaching them from other clubs in their late teens.) Yet Rafa, despite booting out Steve Heighway as Youth Development Manager and replacing him with err…himself, has merely signed dud after dud after dud, whilst ignoring local, young players entirely.
That, and not lack of funds, is why the Liverpool squad is so poor, and their bench so shallow.

Who's Emiliano Insua?

As for bringing through academy players. Well, Rafa's just appointed his man in the summer. You can't blame a man for not bringing in poor players, he can't play them for the crack of it. Some of the young players he's brought in haven't succeeded yet, but we do have a few players who will be in there within the next year or two.

A question many have asked

He's done well in his rise to the first team. He's not been world class or the bestest ever player in the world, but he's more than held his own, he's not been up to it every week and he's been found wanting on occasions, but Rafa did bring him to the club aged 17 and he's been a solid signing so far. Just wait for the likes of Nemeth, Pacheco and Dalla Valle to come through.

Benitez has been at Liverpool 5 years. Wenger has been at Arsenal 13 years, Fergie 23 years at United.

In the last 5 years Wenger has won nothing at Arsenal. Liverpool have finished above Arsenal in the last two seasons.

While I absolutely hope that Liverpool's decline is terminal, at the moment they are just going through a temporary blip and I'd guess that they'll still finish in the top 4.

*bangs head*

Nothing wrong with him works his socks off gets assists and goals.

What exactly don't you agree with?

I dunno. I'll admit, I admire his work rate and you can never knock his effort for the club, but as a right winger, I think he's very average. For me, we should be aiming for so much better, but that's just me. He's better through the middle but I still feel he's fairly limited. I prefer Benayoun over him without doubt and I believe Rafa rates far higher than he should.

None of the above is true? Liverpool don't have a weak bench?
Just my opinion of course, but one that I'm entitled to.

Id love us to buy a out an out winger but ££££
He's done a great job though his stats tell the story not to mention tracking back in defence.