rgk_lfc

Mascherano on Rafa "Benitez lifted me out of a dark hole 20 metres underground and put me up on a high," Mascherano said. "He is a great person and a teacher as a coach -- with him you can learn a lot, if that is what you really want." Mascherano said he had stayed in touch with Benitez after both had left Anfield, but their current positions at Barca and Madrid meant they talked less currently. "Since we were at the same team we have remained in touch," he said. "Our relationship has not changed, although the situation is a bit more uncomfortable now. Someday I will leave Barca, or he will leave Madrid, and it will return to normal. We still talk now, but less often." Guess which manager put Mascherano in the dark hole "The likes of Hayden Mullins and Nigel Reo-Coker kept Mascherano out of the side and within six months he was gone to Liverpool, where he would play in the Champions League final and establish an outstanding partnership with Xabi Alonso. Speaking to Gazetta dello Sport the Barcelona defender was critical of Pardew, saying: “It was frustrating to join after a World Cup and have the manager ask what position I played but I continued to push forward for six months.”

Klopp on Rafa Klopp hailed the return of Benitez, who won the Champions League with the Reds, as the “return of a legend”. He told his weekly press conference: “We know who is coming – a Liverpool legend is coming, Rafael Benitez one of the best managers in the world. We all know how he works, how he can organise a team, how he can make your life really difficult.” Message to Ashley: There isn't a single manager whom you can hope to hire whom opposition managers will even get close to calling "one of the best managers in the world" even if they are drugged, kidnapped, and have a gun pointed at them. All Rafa is asking is a reasonable portion of the PL money which he has earned for the club this year. Just put that in a bank account, give Rafa the account number and go and enjoy your summer vacation or whatever you do. You have one of the easiest jobs as an owner in the premier league. If you screw this up, then either you are dumb, or you are funneling Newcastle monies for something more serious.

link ? At 2:07

From our tunnel cam after the game a month ago Rafa to Klopp as Henderson walks by: Be careful of him. He is from Soonderland. Klopp: Soonderland, makes some remark which I cannot understand.

Rafa is going to be your manager next season. Rafa is not a coward. If he reaches a point where he is genuinely unhappy with the owner, you will know. There will not be any ambiguity in his statement. He had no issues going against Gillette and Hicks, Valencia owners, and Inter owner in the media. If he doesn't see a future with Ashley at Newcastle, he would have no problem calling out Ashley and his cronies in a press conference in a very direct manner by now.

Real defeated PSG in France, Juve in Italy, and Bayern in Munich. All three champions of their respective leagues. Their football looks unimpressive for a team about to do a historic three-peat but they know how to get the job done. They have a manager and players with vast experience in such games. They are ruthless and clinical with their chances. I may be biased in the next statement but I feel that a reasonable number of the 50-50 decisions fall in their favor because of their aura and reputation. Whoever plays them in the final, us or Roma, will have to play the game of this season, to have a minor chance.

Watching him on the TV every weekend was some kind of connection to my teenage years. Brilliant manager. Definitely stayed past his due date but an icon of the PL nevertheless.

Wait at 10 seconds, was that Rafa actually celebrating something? Collectors item that.

He was mad to come here. It would be a different challenge, sure, but he currently works for Mike Ashley, who repeatedly tries to fuck him over. It would be a perfectly sensible move for him. He may or may not want that kind of job, who knows, but it would certainly be reasonable for him to consider it. He was a god at Valencia. He had a great team and he quit that to take over at LFC. At LFC, he was constantly courted by Juve, Madrid, Bayern and he turned down their advances even though he was getting screwed over by our previous owners. One can argue he was mad to take the LFC job and remain there. He along with Mourinho where the hottest young coaches in Europe and he could have taken cushier jobs. But he didn't. Rafa's decision making has always been a bit unorthodox. He will not last long at Arsenal. The fans will complain about the more industrial style of play. The current Arsenal players and midfielders are the antithesis of an ideal Rafa player. Auba is a pure poacher which Rafa does not like. Ozil and Rafa - cannot see them get along. As for the central defenders - Rafa would fire all of them. He will have to revamp the entire team which will be met with resistance. Then there is the Wenger influence on transfers and other operations. Can you imagine Rafa standing on the sidelines and signalling the current Arsenal team to be compact and the entire team agreeing to his instructions.

Rafa's best work is at Valencia, Liverpool, and Newcastle. There is a certain type of city and environment where he flourishes. Arsenal is more akin to Inter, Chelsea, and Madrid. He would be mad to go there.

When Rafa first joined us, we had a couple of Valencia fans join the message board and they talked about Rafa's Valencia machine. Everyone knew their roles, tactically perfect, hated conceding goals, players who did not give 150% and commit to the ideal immediately lost their places irrespective of their talent level, won games by suffocating the opposition. It was the same for us also. While it was not pretty at times, there is a certain beauty to watching your team give 200% to the cause and everyone working in unison to just fricking win. I have seen two Newcastle games this last 4 months. The one against us and one today. I see the beginnings of the Rafa's Newcastle machine in the way you play.

I think I posted this a month ago after you had played us also. There is zero chance of you going down. You are way too organized and have team spirit.

I will be surprised if you go down. You are tactically better drilled than most sides I have seen at Anfield this season. You have spirit and you caactually play 1-2s and get the ball moving forward quickly whenever you feel like it. You might actually be the most organized team ever to fear relegation in the last 10-15 years of premier league football. I feel that you would be competing with Burnley's end of the table with a semi-decent striker. Obviously, the above post comes with the caveat that I have not watched Newcastle a lot. Good luck with the rest of the campaign.

“People watched this game all over the world and this is why - take your heart, throw it on the pitch and play like this, both teams. "I was not scared at the end, not that I didn't think we could concede a fourth, I have known my boys long enough now, it was so intense. "If you combine quality with attitude you see a game like this. I really loved it. "You will find someone who wants to talk about defending, no clean sheet, but he can blow up my boots." http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42594403 Still recovering from watching that game

Some more thoughts on Rafa. Rafa's transfer successes has pretty much been in the > 5 million pounds range in 2005-2009 transfer market era. Reina, Kuyt, Torres, Alonso, Garcia, Agger, Skrtl. Normally when he spend big with us, he got it right. Two notable failures _ Keane ( for which we recouped a majority of the monies), and Aquilani. When you look at his record at below 5 million in 2005-2009 monies, it is very poor. I think Arbeloa was the only notable success. His free transfers were generally horrible. That is a valid criticism one can place at Rafa. For example, Wenger is significantly better than Rafa in creating a team which can compete at the top end of the table in a restricted budget. Having said that what the best owners do is hire talented people and create a system which hides their weaknesses and accentuates their strengths. IMO, what Ashley has done is the opposite. By the way he has managed the transfer budget, he has forced Rafa to purchase players in the sub 5 million range in 2005-2009 monies(when you account for inflation) which is not his strong point. It is like signing a world class racing driver and then giving him a Ford Taurus. Regarding his style of play, normally Rafa creates a base of stable defensive systems and kinda like Mourinho, relies on attacking players to deliver on the creative goal scoring front. For example, Bellamy and others, have given numerous interviews on how Rafa focuses purely on defensive side of things and not much in attack. He normally plays 4-2-3-1 with the role of the front striker being to release pressure on the defense by holding on to the ball and bring the 3 behind him to the attack (Crouch, Mista). Somehow, I dont think he cares too much about strikers who scores goals until we got Torres who was a freak of nature in those years and could score goals as well as bring others to play. He is kinda the anti-Klopp who I think is world class in creating attacking patterns but lacks Rafa's defensive nous.

He will comfortably keep them up

Rafa's press conference against Hodgson was brilliant Benitez had earlier hit out at then-managing director of Liverpool Christian Purslow, and has now directed his venom towards Hodgson, who recently complained that the Spaniard had banned Kenny Dalglish from the club’s Melwood training ground during his tenure. "I think that Mr. Hodgson, he doesn't understand," Benitez said to reporters. "Every single press conference is even worse than the last one. He's talking about things that he doesn't know. And some people cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar. "Maybe he hasn't been in Liverpool too long. We gave the fans their pride - again. We fought for the fans, we fought for the club and we fought for our players. So maybe he cannot understand this." The former Valencia coach continued, "I brought back Kenny Dalglish to do a role in the club and Christian Purslow gave him another role. "He (Hodgson) doesn't know but I will explain it to him. So, instead of talking about the flips or the flops, he has to concentrate on his players, try to do his best. He has a good job to do." Benitez also defended his own record on the transfer market during his tenure at Anfield. "They've signed nine players with £10million net spending, I left that squad with £300 million value, 13 internationals.” Benitez concluded by giving Hodgson some managerial advice. "Concentrate, try to do your best because it will be the best for the club and it will be the best for the fans."

Same here. Rafa is not the type to quit in the middle of the season. I think he will have you comfortable in the PL by December and then put pressure on Ashley once again through the media. How Ashley responds to that will determine his long term stay. When he was LFC manager, he got offers from Madrid, Bayern, Juve - far more comfortable jobs with higher transfer budgets and pay. He did not leave. Once he commits to a project, he will try to see it through to the best of his ability.

Obviously I am deliriously happy with the way we played, but that Arsenal performance was dogshit. One of the worst opposition performance I have seen at Anfield in a long time.

While i agree on paper they are better, i really don't think they are that good tbh. Team is full of individuals which make no sense from a team perspective and most of them have an inflated ego where they think they are better than they are. They'd struggle even with Rafa IMO, mind Rafa wouldn't buy most of the players they have signed. True, I should have added on paper in my post. I have not followed the West Ham transfers but I think they have invested a decent amount on that squad. Much more than Newcastle.

Just an outsiders view of today's game. Full disclosure: this is the first Newcastle game I have watched in ages. Merino is a typical Rafa nifty pickup. You won't have to worry about midfield. Barring injuries - Rafa will build a very decent PL midfield with the Shelvey, Hayden, Merino axis. Perez is such an enigma. Outside of pace, he has everything to be a top class number 10 player. Easily in the top 5% (maybe even 1%) in the PL in terms of ball skills and control in tight spaces. But somehow is not able to put everything together. Ritchie feels like your Gerrard. I know it is an odd thing to say when you win 3-0 but I was slightly disappointed with your attack. Ritchie seems to be the only one who takes responsibility time after time and has this drive to make things happen every time you attack. Loved his mentality overall. Today's game highlighted the difference between a great manager and an average one. In terms of overall quality, West Ham's squad are two orders of magnitude better than yours - full of solid premier league players sprinkled with internationals. Today's win was all about Rafa and his tactics. He owned Bilic. If today's game doesn't convince Ashley, nothing will. Rafa is not perfect but support him in the next few days and he is going to guarantee you a top 8-12 team by the end of the year. You can then build off that base.

So the details of the bid according to several reliable journalist who cover LFC. So the upfront payment was 80 million staggered over 5 years. Add-ons activated when Winning multiple trophies in the same season Winning multiple champions league titles Winning the Ballon d'or Winning multiple trophies and the Ballon d'or in the same season.

According to the Times and Mirror it is 82 + 36 million in add ons. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/liverpool-reject-record-118m-bid-from-barcelona-for-philippe-coutinho-93bpqjv0n In the current crazy market, I dont think LFC will sell unless the upfront money is higher than 100. I wouldn't be surprised if FSG hold out on selling completely.

It has been interesting to see the reaction among LFC fans on message boards I frequent. When Coutinho to Barca links first surfaced, almost everyone was "We will be unhappy if FSG sanctions the sale of Coutinho" Now with the latest bid, quite a sizable portion of the fans was stunned this was rejected. More to it than what meets the eye, IMO. I think the majority of the money would have been in add-ons.

Agree with toon25. As much as it pains me to say, very very impressed with Spurs over the last 5 years. They better start picking up trophies soon as otherwise all their good work will amount to nothing. In a way, I wish they win some silverware as it will provide hope for a number of clubs.