[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Aces High

I mean no disrespect with what I am about to say. I'm not trying to insult you, I mean the following quite sincerely.

No personal attacks, I won't be insulted, no worries.

Your point about Liverpool having scored the most goals is exactly what pisses me off about North American sports fans. Goals scored has very little to do with the quality of play a team has. Arsenal are, and have been for the past decade, the absolute most entertaining team to watch. Their link-up play and the way they move the ball around every blade of grass is extremely rewarding to watch. Take Spain, for example. Barcelona are playing a completely different sport to Real Madrid right now, but Real Madrid keep picking up points while playing terrible football.

Agreed that goals don't equal entertainment. Liverpool are not the most exciting team to watch, but far from boring. Agreed that Barca are a pleasure to watch.

Having your centre backs hoof the ball up the pitch for Torres to chase is hardly exciting football. We lack a midfield general - someone in the middle of the park who can tackle, pass, and will the team to victory. We have a great tackler in Mascherano, a great passer in Alonso, a great leader in Gerrard - but he plays him as a striker because he doesn't have a quality finisher other than Torres, thanks to the whole Keane fiasco. If you don't believe Keane is capable, look at what he's done since he got back to Spurs.

Keane is capable. He showed that a few times, but most of the time, he seemed to be off during his time at Anfield. He had one game (forgot the opponent that day, sorry) where he had 4 wide open nets, some with ample time, and missed every single one of them. A quality striker shouldn't be missing those. As far as the midfield, I think Alonso, Gerrard, and Mascherano are a great start. Once Benitez can find a proper strike partner for Torres, and Gerrard can be moved back to midfield, it will be easier to see the strength down the middle.

Liverpool play boring, boring football these days. I've been watching them since the early nineties and I can't remember a more dull team. Torres and Gerrard are the only world class players we truly have, and that's simply not good enough. None of the players your mentioned as "quality Benitez buys" would make the starting XI for Chelsea or Manchester United. Yossi Benayoun has been playing great lately, I'll agree, I watch all the games every weekend so I'd say I know my football pretty well. But Benayoun is very inconsistent - he would never get an extended run in the Man United team. Just look at Carlos Tevez! Same problem, and Tevez is a much better player.

If you're suggesting that 9 of Liverpool's best starting XI are not good enough to even crack United, it must be not by much. Otherwise they wouldn't be as high as they are in the table, end of story.

Benitez needs to go. He's spent more money than Ferguson since he took over Liverpool.

That's a lie.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle5946946.ece

Take a look at the link if you'd like. Ferguson has spent 9 million pounds more than Benitez since Rafa came to Liverpool. That does not factor money coming in from players sold. Factoring that in, Ferguson's net spend over that time was 36.5 quid more than Benitez. The only ones who reported that Rafa has spent more, was Ferguson's team of cronies that he dispatched to 'research' that (unbiased I'm sure). Of course that was a completely level-headed reaction by a brilliant manager like Ferguson.

Benitez was right, and Ferguson should've simply seen that, and not done anything, instead of trying to spread mis-information.

In the same time frame, Ferguson has bought players like Vidic, Ronaldo, Rooney, Evra, and Van der Saar, all of whom would start over their Liverpool counterparts - Skrtel/Agger, Kuyt, Benayoun, Arbeloa/Insua, Reina, etc, I think you get my point. Torres and Gerrard are the only two players that would get a look into the Manchester United starting XI. There is no excuse for this, the funds have been made available and he's piddled them away. He needs to go - we're going to end this year without any trophies.

I've already covered most of this earlier. The only thing I have to add, is the only place that Van Der Saar starts over Reina is for the Dutch national team, because Reina does not have Dutch citizenship (to my knowledge)

Sorry for the long rant, but one more thing. GET RID OF THIS ROTATION POLICY!!! What good did it do us last week against Chelsea? No good at all. Our players weren't better rested and more energetic at all. Leaving Torres on the bench for a midweek Premiership game against Fulham in October is no different than leaving him on the bench this time of year against Aston Villa or Everton.

Torres has only 19 starts this season. Keep in mind he was out with injury twice I believe. Gerrard didn't play every game, but also had injury problems. Ask Jamie Carragher how often he falls victim to this 'rotation policy'.

Ferguson doesn't start the same XI every match either. He simply doesn't get criticized for it, for the same reason that some GMs and coaches in the NHL are invincible to criticism. Some are simply regarded by the media as better than others. Ken Holland makes only good decisions, and Garth Snow only makes bad decisions. These are extremes of course, but the media treats Rafa and Alex the same way. They like one guy, but not the other.