Get rid of Rafa, Liverpool - or you'll never win the Premier League

so history counts for nothing in your eyes then? and therefore arsenal arent a big team either because they havent had a trophy in the past few seasons? and chelsea wont be a big team if they finish this season trophyless? and barnsley WILL be a big team if they win the F.A. Cup? Typical sportingo bullshit. However, I was at old trafford on sunday and what dissapointed me the most was the visible difference in overall quality of the two sides, cemented when all we have on offer to bring from the bench to change a game is Yossi Benayoun, yet Man Utd can bring on Tevez and Nani. This however, is something Benitez is working towards rectifying, and its not an overnight fix. He's done a fantastic job bringing in players such as Torres, Reina and Mascherano etc, and i'm not blinkered enough to believe he hasnt made a few shockers along the way. But its a completely different market and style of play, and his signings have improved as years go by, even if performances on the pitch have somewhat stalled. Liverpool have the makings of a fantastic team, but heavy investment is still required if we are to really give the title a good shot, but it is Benitez who will carry on his already fantastic work, and I for one, am looking forward to it.

we are still a big team, and allways will be. i to was at old trafford, and we played poor, with fear,and i think next season rafa has to do better in the prem. ship out kuyt, vornin,pennant,aurillo. we need a winger, a full back alves, a striker to help torres villa,with the right buys , we will be there, if not then rafa, should move on, i think even he knows this...

we are still a big team, and allways will be. i to was at old trafford, and we played poor, with fear,and i think next season rafa has to do better in the prem. ship out kuyt, vornin,pennant,aurillo. we need a winger, a full back alves, a striker to help torres villa,with the right buys , we will be there, if not then rafa, should move on, i think even he knows this...

Not me. He's reached 2 CL finals in three years with a 4th on the horizon. His reserve team is about to walk the northern division with a gang of 19 year olds. The under 18s have won the FA youth cup twice on the bounce (the last one at Old Trafford). He finally has spending power to compete with Utd and Chelsea, and all he has to do is complete a team that boasts Gerrard, Torres, Agger, Babel Mascherano and Alonso.... Fear not my scare mongering little friend, Benitez will win the title, and you no doubt will carry on writing shite arsed drawl has no basis in reality. We may not have been in it this season but either were Utd in 06 when they finished so far behind Chelsea neither were Arsenal last year. YNWA

So how many titles has Wenger won till date ? ? ? Alex had 129m(if you include Tevez)in the bench which is 2 times more than Liverpool's First 11. Alex won the league after 6 seasons. Arsene Wenger hasn't won a trophy since 2005. Rafa has reached 2 CL Finals which is same as ManU and Chelsea has reached in their history. Get your facts right !!!!!

Comments like these two gems in quick succession :"Rafa Benitez showed on Sunday just why all Liverpool fans want him out." followed by "But maybe this is why Liverpool fans love Rafa." indicate to me that we are dealing with an imbecile here. I just had to stop reading the article at this point!! Idiot!

you talk such crap - the mancs were out played that night and only came to life in te final 2 minutes of time added on - we are the biggesta nd most succesfull club england has produced go and give your head a wobble

Bob White, I could not agree more with you. What is the criteria for being able to post garbage on this site. It seems that everyday I read some garbage from some moron with two brain cells.

Idiot Idiot Idiot. The only crime here is that someone let you publish your tripe. "Rafa Benitez showed on Sunday just why all Liverpool fans want him out". All Liverpool fans eh? You're not a Liverpool fan, you're not even a neutral. You don't have a clue what the fans want or think. Don't give up your day job and leave the writing to people who know what they're talking about. Andy

i for one has to agree completely with sportingo even if i am myself a die-hard liverpool fan! in fact it is true that with benitez, we are never going to win the league even in 10 years time as i feel that he is responsible for our lack of fight for the crown. he kept rotating the best players early in the season saying that it will pay its fruit at the end . But what end does he mean? The end of our season actually! what is the use of resting our best players when finally we would lose the game. it has happened several times this season when he rested torres, gerrard, babel and mascherano against teams which were supposed to be weak but which finally we lost.rotation was the reason why we lost the league once more. and it has been 3 years now that he is here. he should have known that even better that we are in england not in spain where the style of play is different and which can be compared to the CL .HERE we cannot rest our best players even against weaker teams. what's the use of resting players when that could seriously handicap us at the beginning with a huge deficit only to hope that the other teams would tire lately and lose games as if that were going to happen! Look at chelsea, man utd and arsenal, they never rest their best players even in easy games and that's why they are above always. they have shared the league amongst them for the last 12 years. benitez has been given enough time and we can't wait anymore. he has also tolerated players like riise, aurelio, voronin, pennant, kuyt, and kewell too often and let them play regularly at the expense of better players. we don't deserved to be called a big team if we cannot win the league! hope dic would buy lfc in two weeks as suggested and then mourinho may also come along .forget about the lost to manchester as we asked for it and played as if we were amateurs. we can afford to lose to man utd two times a season and that won't be bad as two defeats is affordable in a season for any club to be a champion as long we win the majority of the rest.that's not a pretext , we can lose to manc every season but we can be champion too those seasons but first of all we must learn to win the other games that we must win and not to draw them or lose them naively. notice that the system lfc plays is bad as not only one corners we get is dangerous and the free kicks are either too high or too low. and our defenders too often give the ball back to the keeper and we don't have a good link between the defenders and the midfielders.

i feel i must reply to this gay manc tourist glory hunter you have won nothing yet chelsea look good for the title liverpool for the european cup and cardiff for the cup arsenal and the mancs can visit there stores and walk the streets a la joe cole while stevie picks up number 6 Rafa may take the premier league serious next year and the outcome will be inevitable sir one flew over the cuckoos nest will retite and arse wont see it fortunately for him

What a load of crap, just focus on your own team and stop critisising others; you obviously know nothing about Liverpool and Rafa.

Expectation must always be based on potential - in 2004-05 Liverpool had the squad capable of challenging inly for one major tournament. Things have considerably improved only this year, when we were able to sign Torres, Babel and Mascherano (permanently) - players who are of a higher level than many of those in past seasons. Now it's up to Rafa to find tactical changes his approach needs to succeed in EPL.

A rather one-sided piece which lacks nuance and insight. Ferguson took seven years to win the premiership. Benitez will do it in less. He needs time. The nucleus of great side has been built. He needs to work on the trimmings now. Remember, all good things come to those who wait. He'll win it.

First, Mascherano should never have been sent off. The ref should have warned him earlier that he was mouthing too much and put an end to it, or asked Stevie G to sort him out before he went over the top. Rafa should bring in his own team rule that only Stevie talks to the ref, the rest should save their energy, as it will not change a decision. Second, the team could not come back with ten men, so to judge Rafa on that performance is unscientific to say the least. There's no guaranteeing he or anyone else will win the league, but little by little he is assembling a capable squad and if he carries on buying one or two superstars like Torres and Mascherano each year instead of half a dozen Kuyts and Penants he'll have every chance of being able to challenge for the trophy.

Anyone against Rafa's rotation policy should take a look at the substitutes for the Man U game. Man U had players like Nani, Tevez, O'Shea, and Hargreaves waiting to come on, while our substitutes included Crouch, Riise, Hyppia, and Benayoun. My point is, Liverpool just do not have the cash at the moment to match the depth of squad that teams like United have. Rafa has no choice but to use a rotation policy - if any of our starting 11 were seriously injured or burned out, it would be a disaster. Imagine Liverpool without Torres. Who's going to come in for him, Crouch? Voronin? Beyond the starting 11, we simply don't have the quality to compete against the big teams, and that's why Rafa needs to rest the starting 11 as much as possible against lesser teams. Rotation or no rotation, there's no excuse for Liverpool to lose to teams like Barnsley - the team does need to improve. But don't scapegoat Rafa and his rotation policy for all our problems. Look at the squad over the last few years and it's clear that Liverpool is on the rise. I'm sure that with some more work, we can be genuine title-contenders.

Liverpool this year cannot beat what they done 3 years ago. A slow rise eh!

Liverpool need to win the Premier League to be a big team? While I wouldn't say no, Liverpool are one of the biggest teams in the World, never mind England. In just this century alone we have won more silverware than any other team in England. That is 1 European Cup, 2 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 2 European Super Cups. Nevermind being the most successful English team ever. Football did not start with the Premier League you know. We may not have won the league for awhile, but when we can have a team of £15 - £20m players like Man U and Chel$ki we will be able to compete. Have look how many £20m players Utd have, and how many Liverpool have. While you count the Utd players, Liverpool have only ever had one player cost more than £20m, and that's Torres. Benitez has worked miracles with the low quality of some of the players he has had. He won the European Cup with Djimi Traore and Igor Biscan for Gods sake, and it wasn't just the final, those players got us to the final as well. Imagine what he'll do with a quality squad. I think Syd should have a listen at the games, he'll hear the fans chanting Bentitez's name, and it is not to to get him out. Stick to commenting on your own team, because you know nothing of what you speak.

how much do you think rafa has spent in all since he has come ! if i m right he has spent as much as what man utd has spent in those 3 years.he has bought alot of crap players who have cost him at least 60 mil . we could have bought several world class players with that sum 2 defenders (LB, RB),a left winger, a right winger and a forward : alves : 12mil (RB) , hutton: 8 mil (LB), quaresma: 15mil(LW), simao: 10 mil (RW), robinho :15 mil. could you dream what our team would be like today. we would have been unbeatable simply. and what is more surprising is that these players were actually being bought at those same price by their future clubs or some were available at those price ! we could have afforded them in 3 seasons. i guest rafa hesitated to buy them at those price but they were definely worth it if you wanted world class players you should pay their price, they don't come cheap we have to build a new stadium very quickly with a huge capacity of 80000 people if we are to get much money to buy players unless they would always go to the mancs!