Rafa's best XI ------------- Pepe Reina ------------ ------ Good Carra - Hyypia ----- Arbeloa ----------------------- Riise ------------------ Mash ---------------- ------- Good SG - Alonso -------- ------ --------- Garcia ----------------- --------- Kuyt ------ Torres --------- Subs include beauties such as: Agger, Rieira, Finnan, Hamann etc. + more who you could argue deserve to be on this XI. Biscan obvious choice. Rodger's best XI (not including better players he refused to play but had at his disposal) -------- Ming the meritless ----- ----------- Skrtel - Lovren --------- Clyne --------------------------- Gomez ----------------- Can -------------------- ------- Old Gerrard - Hendo ---- ------------ Coutinho ----------------- --------- Sturridge - Suarez ------ Subs: Sterling, old Carra, Benteke, old Lucas So what's the conclusion. Well Rafa had a season or two more, so may not be 100% fair, but his team would look very similar if just 3 years... Maybe same. Goal keeper. No contest. Rafa wins hands down. Rodgers had a chance to play pepe but didn't so not showing on Rodgers XI. Defense: Again, no contest. You can't beat Carra and Hyypia. Yes Rodgers probably should have Agger and or Sakho on his team but refused to play them (so no point putting players who don't get game time on list). Fullbacks: Easy win for Rafa, although Clyne and Gomez have potential and in 2 years might rival Arbeloa and Riise. Defensive Mid. Can is great and has a good future but Rafa had Mash who was best in world at that position. Even Hamann would best Can at this stage. Sissoko at his best would too. Love Can but Rafa knew how to pick a DM. Midfield: Gerrard in his prime wipes his butt on the Old man Gerrard that played every game for Brodge. Alonso far outshines Hendo. Attacking Mid. Tough call here. Coutinho is brilliant half the time and completely annonymous at others. Garcia always worked his butt off and produced spectacular moments at times and other times made you cringe. I have to give Rodgers slight advantage here. Forwards. SAS beats Kuyt and Torres. This is Rodgers one clear victory over Rafa. Individually Kuyt not always being injured and hard work rate puts him ever so slightly above Studge just about. As brilliant as Torres was Suarez was a class above. Subs: Rafa again wins hands down. Most of the subs in Rafa's XI would walk into Rodgers team... Well you'd hope they would... But Rodgers would probably just sell them all after not using them. So what was the point of this exercise. 1) Nostalgia. Rafa is my daddy. 2) To show how bad we've been in xfers since Rafa left. Except for Suarez, Rafa clearly wins on almost every part of the field. We've deteriorated in every position... And even Rodger's one sweet tooth, Suarez, is now long gone.
But.... rafa has no city to compete with so was easier to get top 4 and therefor attract better players. Also didn't have teams like Psg Monaco city being able to inflate wages and transfer fees as high as was only Chelsea who were the mega rich club.
That's an interesting point, but who did Rafa sign that was high profile BEFORE playing for us? Torres and Kuyt had growing reputations but the only person I can think of that was a recognised high profile star before joining us was Morientes... And he wasn't exactly hot property anymore. Rafa was never allowed to splash out on individuals by H&G. Sure Rafa spent a fair chunk of money but several times complained he wasn't allowed to spend big money on individuals he wanted ( many transfer Windows we took in more than we sold). Rafa certainly spent a big deal - but nothing like the sun's Rodgers has spent. Even taking into account player inflation Rodgers has probably spent more in 3 years then Rafa did in 5. FSG are much looser on the purse strings than H&G.
#allaboutgerrez PS...bit harsh on Finnan, I'd pick him ahead of every other FB we've had in the PL years bar Rob Jones! PPS...Flanno would be third
Finnan beats Arbeloa defensively but I think Arbeloa beats him attacking and slightly overall. Ultimately, doesn't matter though. Either would be ahead of Clyne at this point. Clyne in the future... We'll see.
I'd have put them the other way around; Arbeloa better defensively and Finnan better going forward. There wasn't much in it defensively though. Finnan is the best crosser with his wrong peg I've seen.
@Milk Can Maybe you should try this a slightly different way. Try posting what you think is the best Liverpool PL XI and see how many players are attributed to each manager... Reina Finnan - Carra - Hyypia - Jones Alonso - Mascherano - Gerrard McManaman Torres - Suarez Subs: Dudek, Arbeloa, Henchoz, Hamann, Berger, Owen & Fowler Souness (3) - Jones, Macca & Fowler Evans (5) - Carra, Jones, Macca, Berger & Fowler Houllier (10) - Dudek, Finnan, Carra, Gerrard, Hamann, Berger, Henchoz, Redknapp, Owen & Fowler Rafa (11) - Reina, Finnan, Carra, Hyppia, Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres, Arbeloa, Hamann, Fowler II Hodgson (4) - Reina, Carra, Gerrard, Torres Kenny (5) - Carra, Gerrard, Mascherano, Torres & Suarez Brod (3) - Carra, Gerrard & Suarez Obviously some will overlap, plus some get a unfair deal such as Kenny with Torres, Woy with Mascherano, Rafa with Fowler II (second coming) and Brod getting Carra and Gerrard in their twilight years etc. Clear to see where the best years where though.
To be fair, I was only nominally a Liverpool fan before midway through Houllier's reign. If Liverpool were on I'd want them to win. If you asked me who I supported, I'd say Liverpool but I didn't watch it much. So although I'm familiar with a lot of players stretching back into the 80s, I'd only really be comfortable saying I've seen enough to compare mid-Houllier onwards. I was more an F1 fan as a kid.
True, but then Rafa didn't have FFP to contend with. Swings and roundabouts. Saying all that, if we have had these owners when Rafa was in charge originally I think we'd have been in a far better place. These owners seem happy to invest so we would have got Barry without having to try sell Alonso. Could have got someone like Ronaldo for 7m rather than it being too much of a risk (Alberto, Ilori signed for similar amounts at same age) etc. Rafa had his problems but he is harshly done when it comes to transfers, even with the restrictions he had he still built a side which up until a couple of years ago still formed the base of the team.
It's unjust really. Rafa was accused at the time of being bad at transfers but considering the constraints he picked up some jewels. Sure , a few lumps of coal, but several diamonds that persisted.
We signed Ronaldo in 2003. Rafa wasn't in charge of Liverpool and Hicks and Gillette weren't the owners
When he spent big in each position he usually got the right player (with one or two expections). Reina our most expensive keeper at 6m good. Johnson most expensive defender at 17 was actually good in the main. Agger again was most expensive until Skrtel came in. Alonso, masch, sissoko, Torres, kuyt, all over 10m and big hits. Only aqua an was over 10m and a flop from what I remember. Its ta when he had to 'wheel and deal' and try get 3 or 4 players with 20m to bulk out the squad that he struggled. Part lf that problem was the academy. Rodgers has had wisdom, wisdom, flanno, Ibe, sterling to help bulk out the squad (partly due to Rafa help in remodelling the academy) but Rafa had none of that due to the poor players produced so had to buy the squad depth for money which restricted his big buys.
I remember Thompson talking about it. You could afford him iirc, but he (Thompson who was nmbr 2?) just didn't think he was worth the risk.
