rgk_lfc

I think you are being a wee bit harsh by stating his type is becoming redundant. Yes, he is no Gerrard or Alonso, but he is a perfect midfielder if a coach wants to implement a high press system. He can control and move the ball fast, press and close down space at a high level for 120 minutes, follows instructions to the letter, and has the game intelligence to position himself in space to receive the ball from the defenders. Keita, Wijnaldum, and Fabinho are better midfielders than Henderson in attributes but we play better when it is Henderson plus two. To see his impact, watch the Southampton game from last season when he came on in the 60th minute and changed the game. He was instrumental in moving the ball faster, initiating the press faster. We just play at a higher speed, tempo, and control when he is on the pitch. As a captain, he has been perfect on and off the pitch for the last three years. Does a lot of great work in the community, an excellent ambassador for the club. He is loved by the squad and players respond to him. He is an ideal captain for Klopp and Klopp is the perfect manager for him. As long as counter-pressing is in vogue, players like him will be in high demand. He is definitely going to retire as a bonafide Liverpool legend, no doubt about it.

I always thought I would go out and have a wild party when we finally win the league. Spent the time on my sofa with tears in my eyes for like an hour once it happened. Don't get me wrong, we have had some wonderful times in the last 30 years, champions league, europa league, FA cups. But the league feels different, more special. Some poster's earlier talked about a dynasty. I don't think so. Ferguson was spot on when he said every great team has a 3-year window after which you will have to change stuff. The core of this team is in its third year next season. I think we might give it another title challenge and a decent CL campaign, hopefully, win one of those but I think that will be the limit. The loss of revenue due to the pandemic has pretty much shelved our transfer plans. We are pulling out of all of our original transfers. So I will be surprised if we are able to stand up to Chelsea, City, United, and maybe even a minted Newcastle in two years;)) Whatever few posts I have made here, I think 90% of them have been with respect to Rafa. But over the past few months, I have been lurking regularly to read Troll's valuable nuggets of information in the COVID threat. Troll = legend. I will lurk around in the Chat forum and occasionally pop in here if Rafa once again becomes your manager or if you are linked to any ex LFC players or staff. I hope that the takeover goes through and you get to winning stuff soon (If we are not winning would prefer it to be a club like you to benefit).

Disclaimer: I haven't watched a lot of your games. My views are based on limited viewing. He looked like the next quality English midfield talent after the City game last year. He looks woeful in the couple of games I have seen of him this year. I wouldn't blame him. It is more of a function of the coaching setup at Newcastle. Young talents need to be carefully nurtured tactically. That is even more important for midfield players. Even the great Xavi's value was not truly recognized until Guardiola took over. Rafa understood Longstaff's strength and weakness and provided him very clear instructions on what to do in different phases of play. I am sure Rafa designed drills and made Longstaff go through them day in day out so that certain things became second nature for him. Also last year, your forwards defended from the front and ran the channels brilliantly opening up passing lanes for your midfield players and making them look twice as good. See a lot of parallels with Henderson under Klopp and Henderson for England. He is not a naturally talented midfielder like Alonso. But he is crucial to the way we play and that is mainly because of Klopp who recognized his strengths and weaknesses and designed a system to maximize his impact. Regarding Longstaff, the next person who coaches him is key for his career. If it is a PFM, then most likely there is going to be a slide down the leagues as his career progresses. If it is someone who values coaching, improving players tactically and physically, then he can be a very effective premier league midfielder at the very least, if not higher.

Torres on Rafa: “The vast majority of footballers stop learning once they become professionals,” he states. “And that is their big mistake. I’ve been lucky enough to have coach like Rafa Benítez who tries to make you better every single day. There’s no doubt I’ve improved a lot.” Torres is the embodiment of practice makes perfect; if the devil is the details so too are the goals. “Things that you would never even have thought about, Rafa does,” he says. “Things that you thought weren’t important are. You might think ‘that’s ridiculous’ but the thing is the proof is there in front of you. You try it and you see that it’s true. It really works. “When I met Rafa I realised maybe for the first time just how important a coach is. He’s not just someone who sticks 11 people on the pitch and chooses a system. He has to get the very best out of every player and every player is different. Some players have to be pushed and piqued, others have to be looked after,” he says. “When I’ve scored two goals or three goals, he tells me I’ve played badly, that I didn’t help out at the back…” The question is inevitable: isn’t that tiresome? Plenty of players have been burnt by Benítez. “It depends,” Torres replies. “You can think, ‘forget it’ or you can think, ‘next time I’m going to work twice as hard, I’m going to do the things he tells me to do and then we’ll see what he says’.” There is a grin. “But if you do that he still has things to say! ‘In that corner, you let your man go and he had a shot…’ He always demands more. Maybe there are players who get sunk by that but personally it helps me.” Nor is it all about motivation; in fact, says Torres, it is more about method. “People say things like: ‘he’s got to improve his shooting’ but that doesn’t mean anything. You have to look deeper than that; you have to focus on how you get into the position to shoot, your arrival point, the position of your body. To say ‘he’s got to shoot better’ is banal, so general as to be meaningless. How do you find the space? How do you get into that position? How do you finish? In what way? “Rafa talks to me a lot about the position of my body. If you’re turned fractionally more to the right or left you might get a millisecond’s advantage; if when you receive the ball you shift you weight you can get away easier. The way you position yourself against the centre-backs, focus on their position and judge their movements as well as your own is vital. One of the most important things I’ve learnt with Rafa is how to play closer to the opposition’s penalty area – how to get in behind the defenders as a solo striker. I don’t have to come back and look for the ball; I fix my position by the centre-backs more than by the ball or the build up. “Rafa always analyses the centre backs I’m facing and the goalkeeping coach tells me about the goalkeepers. In a game it’s a matter of tenths of a second and that information can help. You might be told: ‘The goalkeeper always dives one way and if you’re patient you can wait and go round him the other side, the goalkeeper comes out a long way and you can chip him…’ Those small details really helped, especially in the first year when I didn’t know the players, whether centre-back was quick or slow, whether he comes across to the wings to cover and leaves space behind or whether he sticks.” https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/fernando-torres-how-rafa-made-me-great

Klopp was raving about Wilder in the pre-match program and interview before the game with Sheffield. I have never seen him praise an opposition manager like this. Klopp's original plan was to step out in 2022. But now he extended his contract to 2024 and the reason for the extension was to help manage the transition. I am wondering if FSG is looking at Wilder as one of the options. They wanted Klopp in 2010 and waited for 5 years to get him. Also, they are not afraid to give upcoming managers a chance as long as they commit to attacking football. Their choices after Dalglish was Rodgers and Martinez.

Carlo Ancelotti: "The players are really sad. But I said to them I have experience in moments like this. I lost the Champions League final after being 3-0 up, these things can happen sometimes." Not sure if Carlo is helping the Everton players there.

He isn't. Longstaff brothers are a much bigger talent. Chirivella has a manager and a bunch of coaches at the academy who know how to train youngsters into a pattern of play.

Not with that short-armed charva in goal they won't. Everyone on the pitch, in the stadium, watching the game knew that there was only one spot the ball was going if it was to be a goal. It was a brilliant brilliant strike from the kid but the shot was not traveling at 300 mph. It was about curl and placement and there was a reasonable amount of time for the goalkeeper to react. If he had positioned himself decently, he could have tipped it over the bar. No way to know but I am betting most PL keepers would have deflected that shot. I think he is great at reaction saves but not that great at positioning and some of the more important fundamentals of goalkeeping. Add to this mix his mouth: 'I won't blunder like Alisson': Jordan Pickford Last season all of a sudden, with no provocation whatsoever, he starts mouthing off about Allisson to the press. No one knows why.

I give Klopp so much credit for allowing them to be who they are and indulge their attacking talent. Under Pardew TAA would be on the bench behind someone like Dummett, because he is a "proper defender". TAA is a special talent offensively. The way Klopp sets up his team also helps him significantly. He is the perfect fullback for Klopp and Klopp is the perfect manager for him. I don't think any other team loads up the opposition penalty box and half as we do in the premier league. Klopp tactics provide him with targets and he manages to land them perfectly with both feet. He is defensively average and he is helped by VVD plus another (Matip, Lovren or Gomez) and a hard-working central midfield which can help cover some of the defensive issues. But offensively, he might end up being one of the greatest ever in the premier league. His assist statistics are staggering. In the last season and a half, he has had as many assists in the premier league as Marc Overmars in his career in England.

I have watched three of your games - against us, Spurs, and City. SB maybe tactically limited but he has been able to coax a defensive performance when needed. You also have goal scoring threats in midfield and defense. You should be safe by the end of February, if not earlier.

P17, W16, D1, L0, 49 points from 51? I get what HTT is saying. This season we are not a traditional Klopp gegenpressing blowing teams out of the water team. We have become a weird hybrid of Klopp and Mourinho style. I mean we do play attractive football. But this version of LFC is more like, do enough to win each game. The CL victory has changed the mentality of this team. We have become more focused on winning stuff, play ugly and cynical if needed, than playing with style. Seems like the team is far more focused as well. Also saving legs for a run in as well, no? Don’t want to lose gas when you need to be sharp across so many competitions. That definitely could be one more aspect of the game plan.

P17, W16, D1, L0, 49 points from 51? I get what HTT is saying. This season we are not a traditional Klopp gegenpressing blowing teams out of the water team. We have become a weird hybrid of Klopp and Mourinho style. I mean we do play attractive football. But this version of LFC is more like, do enough to win each game. The CL victory has changed the mentality of this team. We have become more focused on winning stuff, play ugly and cynical if needed, than playing with style.

While Kevin Keegan, SBR, and Benitez might have different approaches to football, all of them had clear ideas on their approaches to the game and how to execute them. Anyways, forget their footballing nouse which is prodigious. Another couple of things which stands out when you watch the interviews of these three managers is humility and honesty. They never take the fans for fools. None of this front foot football bs. Whether you are at LFC, Newcastle, or Valencia, the fans belong to a tribe and the manager often is viewed as the leader of the tribe. One of the bare minimum we expect out of the manager is that he be a good person, a man of integrity. And Rafa's, Keegan's, and SBR's integrity oozes out in every interview they provide. Kevin Keegan left us to join Hamburg but he was so honest about the entire transfer and his reasons that he is still considered a legend at LFC. No other great player who left us is afforded this level of respect. Rafa and Keegan had the integrity to walk out of something they loved doing (manager of Newcastle) when they felt things werent being done the right way. Rafa at LFC had the integrity to go after the owners. Both of them could have remained silent and coasted their way through life but they didnt. Fans can sense it when they have a manager who has integrity and respond to it. I am surprised as to why the media never cottoned on to this aspect when they keep on complaining about the support Rafa received compared to Hodgson and Bruce.

One of the best pure coaches in the premier league in the last 10 years. He did get a decent group of players to work with but it was impressive how he managed to improve each and every one of them and consistently over deliver until this season. There is an element of Klopp at Dortmund and Rafa at LFC with him. It is very difficult to constantly punch over your weight day in day out and get your players to play at 150% again and again and again. At some point you will slip up. The next club he joins is getting a world class manager.

In terms of trophies, he will never get close to Pep. Just because of the type of job he takes over. And yes, Klopp has spent money, but a lot of his purchases both at Liverpool and Dortmund were raised from sales and Champions league revenue. Without the Coutinho sale, we were never going to spend on Vand Dijk and Alisson. Lot of similarities between Klopp and Keegan. One huge advantage Klopp had over Keegan was the footballing setup (scouting, data analytics, sports science, physio) at Dortmund and Liverpool.

He has been very good in the Klopp system. I am guessing the reason for the Ballon d'Or nomination is the two goals against Barcelona in the semi finals. He has been a very good signing for us but not Ballon d'Or good.

I highly doubt the fact that we could not afford the 16 million. We had just won the Champions League, was in our healthiest financial position in ages. Lot of rumors from good sources at that time that Rafa did not fancy him at LFC. He was a great player for us. But at the same time, Houllier set up our attack to go through him. Gerrard, Murphy, all were pretty much instructed to seek him out through quick first time balls and then he could use his pace and finishing. Houllier sold Fowler, had Heskey to do the hard work upfront. We were Michael Owen FC for 3-5 years. But I think the game evolved past his type of striker during that period. If you are to run your entire attack through one player, that player better have Shearer, Henry levels of productivity. As impressive as Owen was, even at his best season he was like 60 % of Shearer and Henry. And elite managers like Rafa, Capello who aspired to compete at the latter stages of Champions league, preferred not to run their attack through one player whose productivity did not quite warrant it. And Owen either did not want to or lacked the ability to evolve his game to the new requirements. I know this is going to sound like sour grapes but in a weird way, as good as he was for us, over-reliance on him hurt us in the 2003-2005 period.

Even if Rafa did watch the cricket, I doubt he would be talking about it during an interview about the game we've just played. It might seem petty, but I just thought it made Bruce look small time. Rafa doesnt watch cricket

He is allegedly a forward, that's how they are judged, do they score or assist. He is like a salesman who does all the customer care but never sells. He is a luxury we can't afford He is an attacking pest in the Suarez, Firminho, Kuyt, Bellamy mold. I have been very impressed with him in the three games of yours I have seen. He definitely needs to score and assist but you cant value his contribution by that alone. If he is made available for 25-30 million in the winter transfer window, I am betting a number of the top 6-10 clubs will bid. I can see LFC being definitely interested. He is a perfect Klopp player.

I am surprised at their attitude towards Coutinho. At the time of the transfer, we knew he was never going to be worth 110-140 million but he is still a fine footballer. Given that Valverde is not considered a great tactician or anything, I thought they would at least try Coutinho under a different manager before pushing Coutinho out of the club. Barça already had a relatively high wage bill so I would assume to bring players in like they have done this summer they simply can’t afford to keep everyone they already had plus the others they’d ditch are all older so harder to move. True. I know the Neymar skewed the market. But you just don't do the second or third most expensive transfer of all time without a clear plan on how to use the player. Not that I am complaining, that Coutinho money helped us assemble the final pieces for our champions league win.

I am surprised at their attitude towards Coutinho. At the time of the transfer, we knew he was never going to be worth 110-140 million but he is still a fine footballer. Given that Valverde is not considered a great tactician or anything, I thought they would at least try Coutinho under a different manager before pushing Coutinho out of the club.

I posted this in the Rafa thread but might be more suitable here: https://twitter.com/MidKnightGaz/status/1160689967137525763

https://twitter.com/MidKnightGaz/status/1160689967137525763

Rafa's training is incredibly intense and to a certain extent repetitive and boring. He will make players repeat drills, positions till they are 100% perfect. It is a lot of information for folks to process. And he is incredibly cold and brutal apparently during training. His attitude was "you train 4 hours per day for 4 days, get paid millions of dollars, why are you complaining, this is nothing compared to what the rest of society do, if you cant take this get out of here". It takes players of a certain mentality to appreciate Rafa - Torres, Reina, Baraja, Mascherano, Garcia. I think there is a big cultural mentality difference in how players from some of these countries approach training - they are ok with it being hard, repetitive, and boring. At LFC too, when Rafa left, there was a lot of statements from players like Gerrard, Carra on how training was "more fun" now. Even Bellamy, who played for LFC under Rafa and King Kenny said how training was more fun under King Kenny. However, at the end of their career, almost all of them acknowledged that Rafa was the best manager they trained under. I think pretty much all of them realized it once we started dropping down the table. So I don't think the NUFC players are being disingenuous or anything. I think they are genuinely enjoying freedom. They don't have a person walking up to them shouting at corners, when the opposition is making 32 degree runs in front of you using zonal marking, you should stand 26 inches from the goal line at 48 degrees. You were at 24 inches and standing at 41 degrees. Let us repeat this 37 more times till you get it right. Well it worked - end of last season our form was excellent. Tactically the players knew what they had to do. Yes, I can imagine many players resent the seemingly endless grind of repitition but they also have to have been aware of how often it paid off in the back end of last season. That said I imagine they could get pretty disillusioned at the beginning of the season. Its only in hindsight they will look back and realise. I still feel that we will see a gradual deterioration this season as defensive duties get neglected in the middle of the pitch, the doubling up, the being in the right place. With Bruce having no answers. Two months after Ranieri replaced Rafa at Valencia, some of the senior players met Ranieri and complained that the training was a bit too simple. Ranieri asked them how Rafa did the defensive drills. The senior players told them Rafa had five overall defensive system drills customized to different types of opposition with tweaks introduced every weak to nullify specific threats for that weeks opposition.

Rafa's training is incredibly intense and to a certain extent repetitive and boring. He will make players repeat drills, positions till they are 100% perfect. It is a lot of information for folks to process. And he is incredibly cold and brutal apparently during training. His attitude was "you train 4 hours per day for 4 days, get paid millions of dollars, why are you complaining, this is nothing compared to what the rest of society do, if you cant take this get out of here". It takes players of a certain mentality to appreciate Rafa - Torres, Reina, Baraja, Mascherano, Garcia. I think there is a big cultural mentality difference in how players from some of these countries approach training - they are ok with it being hard, repetitive, and boring. At LFC too, when Rafa left, there was a lot of statements from players like Gerrard, Carra on how training was "more fun" now. Even Bellamy, who played for LFC under Rafa and King Kenny said how training was more fun under King Kenny. However, at the end of their career, almost all of them acknowledged that Rafa was the best manager they trained under. I think pretty much all of them realized it once we started dropping down the table. So I don't think the NUFC players are being disingenuous or anything. I think they are genuinely enjoying freedom. They don't have a person walking up to them shouting at corners, when the opposition is making 32 degree runs in front of you using zonal marking, you should stand 26 inches from the goal line at 48 degrees. You were at 24 inches and standing at 41 degrees. Let us repeat this 37 more times till you get it right.