Liverpool FC

This could be a bit of a rant but I feel like saying it after watching the situation unfold at Anfield over the last few weeks.

WTF?! I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes and how this has an affect on it but it does not excuse what is happening on-the-field. 4 years ago I was at the home legs en-route to our Champions League success, 9 months ago I was watching us beat Man Utd, Real Madrid, Chelsea and come within touching distance of winning a long overdue title. How can so much change over the summer period, what has changed over the summer period?

The American owners have done more harm than good but imo the backroom situation is as a result of a series of poor management decisions. Why do you sell a business? You anticipate trouble ahead, you have peaked within the market and cash in, you lack the energy/drive/ability to take it any further forward. Every football club is a business and are in existence for profit. David Moores and co sold at the right time, Liverpool have been very stagnate since the end of the golden era in the 80s. Since then we have flirted with success and indeed had moderate success but the sustainability of that moderate success if not life-long. A bog standard way of building upon that success is by generating more revenue, of particular interest in the current football economy, why was Ricky Parry unable to foresee the need to expand the stadium 5 years ago when the likes of Arsenal, Utd and Chelsea were growing at phenomenal rates? Why is Liverpool FC, arguably the most successful and historical football team in the country, simply lightyears behind in terms of infrastructure? Broken promises, lies and false hope.

Despite that, like I said, not much can change in 10 weeks on a football front, can it?

Imo the team effectively grew stronger over the summer. The most significant loss was Alonso, he was not however the anchorman of the team, the pinnacle of our success. Indeed, his best season was 2008/2009, even during which he was relatively anonymous in the big games, indeed, for Madrid this season he is yet to produce the form of last season. He thrived off of Masch and Gerrard and that's propelled him dramatically. I don't believe he was or would have been that critical to our success. He is certainly an outstanding player and nobody in our team currently is re-producing that. However, having been bored out of my mind and looking at videos of Aquilani, he sure as hell has the potential and is a more dynamic player offering more than just epic passes.

For me...Carragher is the pinnacle of our defence, his ability and confidence carries the back four. He had a shocking start to the season and as a result the form dipped dramatically, in terms of the defence - you know, the best defence in the league last season (the fuck?!). Gerrard - looks totally out of sorts. Injuries/lack of match fitness/court appearances/external crap/career peaked a season or two ago..whatever it is, he's not the Gerrard most people have come to love. As a result, there is no player able to pick up from this. Alonso couldn't, he's not attacking. Masch thrived off of Gerrard - his confidence and hidden agendas meant poor performances. Aquilani - needs time. Lucas - %"^%^&&!^!^!£. Benyaoun was the only player capable of stepping up the mark and Benitez ruined that by not selecting him consistently and the when that may have happened he got injured. Torres - injured and again the manager refuses to believe he needs another striker. I would not be surprised to see him come out the closet and pronounce his unrivalled love for that Dutch fail on the right wing. You know the actual striker that is apparently better off there?

Ok, so lets analyse Benitez (yeh I'm boiling over now so fuck it). Babel - Lets spend >£10m on a promising, young footballer who has bag loads of potential and then make him sit on the bench game after game after game. Then when he does do something good - Arsenal champs league game last season, Madrid appearance, Lyon this season - he was back to the bench. The guy aint brilliant but nobody can come on for 20mins and work magic or even play 90mins and work magic. A consistent run and a consistent team/formation goes a long way you idiot.. Kuyt - The workrate of the guy is phenomenal but he's a striker, don't put him on the right wing. I don't need organ grinders on the right wing, I need them in centre mid i.e. Masch. Whack Johnson on the right, put Carra at right back, or better yet buy a fucking right back, then have Skrtel and Agger form a decent partnership. Then buy a left back.

He has spent £250m and bought shite squad players, the few good guys he has bought i.e. Crouch and Keane, he has let go.

He is far too stubborn. Game after game after game its the same thing. We will lose against Villa, which will basically confirm that we won't make top 4, he will say this: "well, i must take the positives, i can see we have quuuuuuaaaaality in the team, we are improving, we are creating chances, we just need to take on game at a time, try and get 3 points and move on, thats all we can do".

SOD OFF MAN. We take chances but you stick a world-class centre forward up there on his own to convert them, only supported by 2 awful squad players, who wouldn't turn out regularly for Aston Villa/Wigan/Tottenham and then just Gerrard.
You have managed to destroy the confidence of the entire team, the team finishing second to the league winners last season who we happen to convincingly beat twice last season.
If you just listened you'd learn a lot. You won titles with Valencia - that aint the Premier League. You won the Champs League in 05 - an amazing feat but helped in the final massively by a very arrogant Italian side, which is rather typical of the Italians. You lost us the title last year, single-handedly. You selected a defensive line-up to play the bottom of the league team today. You have spent money in places you don't have the expertise for. You have killed the confidence of the team and have the audacity to deflect responsibility. Go quietly, I wish you every success.