POLL : Do you want Rafa to stay at Liverpool?

Vote yes! Rafa out means we pay him 15 million to be fired! Can’t afford that! And not to be the spelling police but it should say “don’t know” not “don’t no”.

I am just hoping he does the decent thing and walks away of his own accord.First we need new owners in place and a complete overhall right through club as a whole

It really depends on who would replace him. He should go if we get king kenny or the special one but stay otherwise

i think can´t find better coach now when him!!!!

Ha, antoine,
i wish we knew the people who said no first!… Rafa YNWA

im probly going to get slammed by a shitload of comments for this but what the hell, you all claim knny should come back u actually look at what he did when he managed us, he inherited a great squad and therefor did well but then he walked now obv the reason he walked is understandable as hillsbourgh broke his heart, but he left his predacessor with nothing but old men with the heart but not the body to do the job anymore kenny would only be a good manager if we had a good squad , youve all seen how long it took to return to strength after he failed to bring in enough new quality to carry us beyond his years, im not going to take anything away from his playing ability because he was sensational but that is no reason to hire him, IN RAFA I STILL TRUST

wow, shaun… where were you last season? and the few season before? or a matter of fact for the past decade?

our defence had gaps? sure. it was cause by injuries. shuffling your defensive players surely create havoc on the understanding.

our zonal marking not working? it worked well enough for the past few seasons compared to how many the other teams shifted goals based on man marking. perhaps we should just shift carra, agger and skrtel out as they are not really good at heading and not big enough…

europa is for children? i guess valencia, benfica and juventus are just small clubs in their league… with stars like aimar, de maria, juan mata, silva, buffon and quite a number of other sought after players still at those clubs. 8-0… FM/CM syndrome…

reina is heading for his 4th clean sheet award this season… just to touch on clean sheets.

yes, rafa has made some mistakes. but to say, he’s all wrong, have you been listening to torres, mascherano, reina and gerrard? if you can’t agree with them, then i could not say anything as they are the core of our team. as for finding anyone else, please guys. this is not fantasy football. it revolves around real money and money is being spent all over the place. if anyone actually read and comprehend how things have unfolded during the preseason, you’ll noticed we have all been conned by the fat yanks. 50 million to be spend on players. nobody told us that it include extending players’ contracts. do you really think rafa wanted soto that much? or aquilani? he need to wheel and deal around…

based on the above scenario, would you use the 50 mil on gerrard’s and reina’s contract or let theirs run out and get new players who might not settled at all?

@ gani sharma, martin kelly, jay spearing occasionally and pacheco has made a few cameo’s aswell

Rafa should stay. We’ve won nothing? Discounting the bratty attitude that we’re not other teams, how many have won the CL (Chelsea’s wishlist), European Supercup, FA and Charity Shield, plus a runners up position in the world’s most competitive league and another CL final – all without funding?! Rafa has kept this club, almost single-handedly, liquid, courtesy of top four finshes and CL runs. Do his critics want to acknowledge his managerial handicaps? Why, for the umpteenth time, would class like Reina, Masche and Torres want to play for such a horrible coach? Why would world class talent like Kjaer deliberately want to bypass OT, the Em or Bridge to play at Anfield? Rafa is a Scouser at heart, the kind of strong character we need in these desperate times, and innovative individual (Shankly-esque) thinker we need. Let’s not buy uninformed media bullshit and look at our positives. Rafa should most definitely stay.

15 mill to get rid of rafa. BARGAIN. BY HIM NOT BUYING ANY MORE LAME DUCKS FOR A FORTUNE AN SELLIN FOR PEANUTS. we will save the 15 mill . enjoyed benfica game. excellent counter attacking for the goals, reminds me of houllier days. Now there’s a class manager. if only he’d had money available Benitez has had. He’d still be with an we’d be flyin high

it stupid to change your opinion because we won one game so if we lose against fulham, people are going to want him to leave, i said i wanted him to leave before and i still do.

Most of the Rafa critics seem rather short sited to me. One of the first things Rafa did upon his arrival was get our defense in order. Surely Reina winning golden gloves 3 years running must say something about our D. Also, look how many goals we conceded last year. Maybe Rafa is stubborn because there is proof his system works. Do you completely change things up when you have a poor run of form?

Benfica only scored from free kicks. Their goal scoring record has been supreme and their only goals came from fouls. We were very solid on corners yesterday for the most part and the goal came from a poor wall, not zonal marking. To say we should beat team like Benfica 8-0 is a little thick, just ask the blue half of Merseyside.

Has Benitez made some questionable decisions? Yes. One thing I don’t think anyone can question though is his love for the club. He is 100% committed to the Liverpool cause. Mourinho seemed to me like a hired gun, typical of the players at Abramovic’s Chelsea; brought in to do a job but is there really that loyalty to the club? I don’t think so. He is better at developing personal relationships with players, I’ll give him that. I would gladly take a thumbs up from Rafa than I hug and kiss from Jose.

I just don’t think if Rafa was such a poor manager that world class players would be speaking out to defend him, let alone wish to play for him. This season really has just been the perfect storm. Limited transfer funds, injuries, low confidence, poor luck. Sack the manager? No one is faultless here but c’mon.

And the comment of buying lame ducks for a fortune and selling for peanuts is completely groundless. Please, back that statement up. You sound like the dim pundits that try to discredit Rafa with talking points that deceive the uninformed.

I’m not saying people aren’t entitled to their opinions, I just feel some arguments for sacking Rafa are not justified.

shaun – i can understand perhaps you’re upset about the whole mess we’re in this season. i am in the same situation as you are. no, second is not the best i wanted. yet, tell me, in what ways have the club really regress, other than our inability to compete in the transfer market, since benitez took over? and in what way was it worse than the souness, evans and houllier years? last season was one we never had for a long, long years. since the mid 90’s, i believe. in that time, while the other top 3 moved forward, we have languished in mediocrity.

you talked about players being let go and treated unfairly. alright. bellamy wasn’t playing well and got injured quite often. now his club need to take extra care for him to continue playing. crouch was let go, he wanted to and the money was used to pay for torres, our current fan favourite. keane? he’s playing well with celtic now but where was he when he went back to spurs? on the left wing or the bench. hyypia wanted to go, even when we offered him a new contract and you need to respect his decision for that.

we bought and sold over 80 players. true. at least the money was returned to the coffers and we made money out of them. we never truly lose out on the players value and on some we made real profit to be used on the players that we wanted. we don’t really have the money to compete in the transfer market, therefore only with that kind of activities, do we get the players he wanted… unfortunately, at times, his hand was tied. where we wanted simao, he was too expensive and he had to gamble on pennant. where we wanted alves, we ahd to settle for arbeloa. so, where has the money gone?

tactically, we have played teams off the field in the past with the players rafa had. just because this season everything went to shambles, does it means it was wrong from the beginning?

i’m sorry if you don’t think the players i mentioned was not good enough for liverpool and the champions league. which means the other managers who are preying upon those players are mad too. perhaps not aimar while buffon never wanted to leave juventus, even when they went down a division; but david silva de maria? not good enough? and talking about injured players, ferguson spent the same amount to get owen hargreaves…

to change managers, who would come and won’t buy new ‘world class’ players that we can’t afford? the ‘special one’ will come only if he’s able to bring the players he wanted at all cost. he did that at chelsea, with drogba, fereira, essien and carvalho. so, where are we going to get the money, then? sell gerrard and torres, perhaps? or maybe mascherano, reina and maybe lucas, since nobody think he’s good enough.

i’m not defending rafa because i’m a loyal fan of him or such. i am, first and foremost, a liverpool fan. however, i think looking at the whole picture will give you the sense of reality where we are at the moment, in terms of financial security. below the top 3 and below the top 6. man city, aston villa and spurs have spent much, much more than us the past few years. their ability to pay those exorbitant wages made them much more fanciful than us. and we still need to make our top stars happy. you talked as if we’re still the same teams of the 80’s, when reality showed we have gone far, far down the drain after that. we need to recover, not just from this season’s slump but from years of mismanagement and misjugdment, no matter how much good intention was put in, and benites is doing just that. trying to put the club where it should be…

so forgive me if i might sound symphatetic but i am truly. being made a manager who’s trying to fulfill the dreams and hopes (some bordering on obsessions) while at the same time not being given the same playing field as the other managers by the club, can be quite maddening. it’s a case of ‘huge responsibilities, limited resources’. i worked in the customer service industry and the same mantra applies. you got to please the customers, who are unsatisfied with the service while at the same deal with the beuracratic of the organization, who won’t give you the free hand to deal with the problems. at times, i think i do go mad…

being fickle minded can only bring the worst situation to this club. when we should’ve stick together against everyone, we’re listening and believing the media, who are really having a go at benitez without giving him credit. did anybody slag redknapp for benching keane? yet benitez had them. we won against benfica, a team on top form in their league and nobody mentioned much about the win. did anybody said anything about ferguson playing an injured rooney and lost? nope.

seeing is believing, some might say but only if you open your eyes to the whole scenario. it’s sad how ‘you’ll never walk alone’ has lost it’s meaning amongst us fans.