The Rafa Report

Click here to download the podcast.

Click here to subscribe via ITunes.

Guillem hangs out with the Liverpool boss and, this time, he takes his tape recorder along, allowing us to bring you his interview with Rafa Benitez (and it's worth a listen, covering issues he did not touch upon in the paper). Matt Hughes, who, like me, got sick in Paris, is in for the Premier League review and a look back England's unimpressive defeat against the World Cup runners-up. Curiously, I find myself being the most pro-O'Neill guy in the room, despite me revealing a stat his acolytes probably don't want you to know.
Bill journeys abroad for his stat of the week and, as ever Guilem and I do some quick hitting...

Rafa explains how this part of the season is different from the rest, how he deals with things in training and how, by this stage, the players are feeling the strain.
We doff our collective hats to United, acknowledging what was possibly their best performance of the season against Aston Villa, who were, frankly, awful. Matt and Guillem gang up on Martin O'Neill, to the point that I feel almost bad unveiling my stat: he's been in charge for 77 games and he's actually done worse in those 77 games than O'Leary had done in his first 77. And yet, as we know, M-O-N is G-O-D, while O'Leary is... welll, the less said the better. I think they're a bit harsh on him, I was just pointing out that O'Neill the person and O'Neill the media figure is rather more impressive than O'Neill the manager. At least for now.
Matt and Guillem agree that Arsenal are on the slide and that they were somewhat fortunate in the 3-2 win over Bolton. Matt says Wenger probably should have rotated his squad more, but could not, because he doesn't have the players to do so. And maybe he should have strengthened his side in January. This, of course, incenses Guillem, who claims that it's easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of the needle than for a club to buy a decent player in the winter break.

Comments

[Football Credit Card]

Whoever Liverpool buy, they should start buolding their team around Gerard and Torres. Alonso is a very good player and suits Liverpool perfectly. why would they wana sell him? 2 or 3 big signings will help them compete for the title.... I think.

[Tom Eldridge]

Not sure if your still reading this Guillem, but is it Florent Malouda? Rafa was really keen on him last summer and I think Flo realised he made a mistake chasing the £!

[Jimi Gerrard]

Rafa's words:

"We have some signings for the next season done. They are senior players for the first team and young players for the first team and reserve team. Two of them are really close, young players, and one senior player is done. He talks good English, but is not English. I'm not giving any more clues! You need to look for Bosman players and sometimes you need to do it quickly and go for cheap players."

[Jay Jay]

Hi guillem.

Would the player in question signing for liverpool be stephen taylor?

[Ashwin Karthik]

Is David Beckham still a big name!! :P

[sandeep]

I will be shell shocked if it is David Beckam..hehe

[Len]

Is it Gary O'Neil?

[AB]

Guillem is it true that we might be getting Luka Modric?
He played well against England and i remember krancjar speaking highly of him in the gamepodcast?

[NADO09]

Guilem,
Does the player play in the premiership and is he a young player or a veteran

[Spratt]

kevin nolan
kevin davies
matthew taylor

any of those guillem?

[Donal]

I believe it might be Micah Richards???

[NADO09]

Hi guilem,

is the player Gareth Bale

[Franklin]

Guillem, it is implied that the player is english, but has he been capped by the england senior team?

[Ber]

Reuben, you obviously listen to Andy Gray without actually watching the games. It's quite easy to name 6-7 starters, the rest get rotated. Like the other teams.

And never started the same side twice in a row? Please!!! do your homework.

[reuben anderson]

Having listened to the podcast and read the game interview, I think Benitez's comments on his rotation policy are disingenious.

Isn't it still that case that's he's never played the same team two games running?

As any fantasy football player will know, it's completely impossible to pick a liverpool midfield. At the beginning of the season you couldn't pick the strikers, and recently the fullbacks seem to change every game too. What's Carragher doing on the right?

The problem is not rotation, it's the rotation for every single game. There's no continuity, no rhythm. Whereas Man Utd have a first team, give or take whether they're playing 4-5-1 with Tevez on the bench, or 4-4-2 with Anderson on the bench. And when they rotate, it's usually just one or two players, unless they're against much weaker opposition when it'll be half the team.

[Mark D]

Hi Guillem,

Great PODCAST.

Is it Joe Cole?
Cheers,
Mark

[NADO09]

Is the player:
- Baines
- Darren Bent
- Alan Smith

[NADO09]

Is the player 'world class' or another average player like pennant?

Guilem do you think this player is worthy to play at Liverpool

[NADO09]

Is it Gareth Barry

[Ber]

It's Cattermole, you read it here first. Don't understand it myself, i'd rather give Guthrie a chance than signing more unproven talent.

[toe]

Bumped into Guillem in a pub & he still wouldn't tell me who the player is but did state that NO-ONE has given the correct name yet!

[guillem balague]

nope, he has not been mentioned yet in this blog...

[pleas respond to this]

hi can some one please tell me why rafa starts kuyt he offers nothing to liverpools attack. i think he should start peter crouch instead because he always creates oppurtunities and offers so much more to liverpools atack i think he is far superior to kuyt. or even if rafa doesnt want to start crouch he should go for babel playin just behind torres, why start babel as a winger when he is not a natural winger and he has also public ally stated that his best position is striker. i am a liverpool fan and i dont like rafa because he starts kuyt. i think kuyt is one of the worst players in the premiership, what does he do apart from running?

[frank]

oh yeah and just another thing (Columbo style) the other mentioned stipulations, the shock value will be nolan is ANOTHER centre midfielder and he could have been mentioned in the edited section of the podcast when talking about the bolton v arsenal game with questioning where he was (suspended)
am i right?

[frank]

ok so english, primary position not right and not overly large name.... not sure about contractual issues with the people mentioned but i will stump for kevin nolan, don't know if he improves overall quality but provides more depth. plus with regard to walking into 1st XI a donkey could take kuyt's place, he may run around a lot but there ain't much intelligence to the running and the less talked about his technique the better!