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Listed below are comments made by 5ForKeeps between Monday, 9th February 2009 and Wednesday, 25th November 2009.

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Benitez under spotlight after Champions League exit 12:23pm on 25 Nov 2009 As Liverpool supporter, our season so far has being very disappointing espeically after coming off the back of a season when we performed brilliantly. A lot of pundits blame it on a lot of things...the fact is:

- We haven't had a settled backline this year
- We don't have a player who had Alonso's ability fully fit to produce the kind of link up play we had.
- Blaming Zonal Marking is lazy, the system that has being employed by Benitez ever since he arrived. It comes back to individual players not taking responsibility or not concentrating on the job at hand.
- Players being too cocky - espeically about the Champions League

The one thing to come out of last night is that a reality check is needed by all involved the manager and the players. Liverpool have no given right to be in the Champions League it has to be earned and sadly during the whole season this far we have come up short too much.

The next 3 month's is big for Liverpool and Rafael Benitez's reign. We either sink or swim.
Northern Ireland looking good for 2010 qualification 6:53pm on 04 Sep 2009 ArmchairDave, comparatively easy group for ROI...

As I mentioned above a new manager and coming off the back of the disasterous reign of Stan - some dues need to paid to the way Trappatoni has gone about getting us into the position we are in.
Northern Ireland looking good for 2010 qualification 6:51pm on 04 Sep 2009 akaZezinho

Out of those players Jonny Evans only would. The rest are of the same standard. Healy has being shown up at the top level of the game but does a great job for NI and fair play to him.
Northern Ireland looking good for 2010 qualification 6:50pm on 04 Sep 2009 bigbusterfromglynn - 90% if the ROI are not Celts...ha ha never have I heard such drivel. Considering our national language came from the Celts that would make us desecendants of them. If you read up on the Celts please do:

http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/celts.html

No mention of the ROI in the article considering we have a tough enough group, a new manager and coming off the back of the disasterous reign of Stan - some dues need to paid to the way Trappatoni has gone about getting us into the position we are in.
Ancelotti's reality check 3:37pm on 06 Jul 2009 This time last year Phil, you can probably recall that I said of Scolari "he will be the next Christian Gross" - Scolari wasn't a yes man much like Gross.

But Chelsea have got the biggest yes man of the lot and perfect for Ambramovich. Carlo experienced the owner mentality at Milan, can he hack it in the Premier League and Europe(where he excels the most) with this aging Chelsea side. The signing of Zhirkov is shrewd but thats Roman flexing his own agenda there.

I won't go as far as last year in what I said about Scolari but Ancelotti won't have it easy. A few bad results and like Scolari it could turn sour for him.
Benitez deserves Euro respect 2:59pm on 11 Mar 2009 Post number: 180

"Lets see Liverpool get Bayern Munich in the Quarter Finals with the 2nd game in Munich - calm down calm down - there's maybe another 4 hours of football to be played yet........"

Do you seriously think Bayern will upset any of the English teams not a chance...they were playing what can only be described as a Sunday League side in terms of professional football. Too lose 12-1 on aggregate in this day an age shows how bad Sporting are my local League of Ireland club Wexford Youths FC would have given Bayern a better run for their money and they are amateurs.
Benitez deserves Euro respect 1:25pm on 11 Mar 2009 The difference Phil is the style of play and mentality in the English game which has to be done for over 38 games.

After the 2005/2006 season no one mentioned that Benitez couldn't hack in the League and he finished a respectable 1 point behind Man United and a 10 plus behind run away leaders Chelsea.

Last night Liverpool did display this against Madrid and over the course of the past seasons in Europe against the likes of Barcelona, Inter and even Arsenal and Chelsea.

In one off games Liverpool can beat anybody and the record proves. Benitez is a crafty manager but in my opinion shows too much respect to some teams in the league we should be beating but in saying that our Home Record and Away Record are better than last season. You can double check it. Liverpool despite the six draws at home which matches the number from last season we have more home wins.
Benitez deserves Euro respect 11:46am on 11 Mar 2009 Balanced enough article Phil. With good points and bad points. The disappointing nature is despite beating Real Madrid 4-0, the biggest defeat by any side on Madrid since the Milan side of 1989 under Arrigo Sacchi.

Last night's result is being sullied by some of the comments on here and in the article itself of Benitez and it disappoints me that people always bring the Premier League situation into the equation what more can the man do, the team is challenging at least this season is that not progress? if this was any other club with the result last night the media would be creaming themselves.

The man deserves respect in all that he has done for Liverpool, look back to this time at these stats below in both the League and Champions League proper:

Rafa's Record in the League since he arrived: Pld: 180 won: 99 drew: 45 Lost: 36 = 55% win percentage(only Paisley has a higher win percentage than Benitez)

Rafa's Record in the Champions League(proper) since he arrived: Pld: 42 won: 29 drew: 11 loast: 12(including last night) = 69% win percentage

If he wasn't good manager to go with the above, he wouldn't be a League winning manager twice and a European Cup winning manager.
England's elite in pole position 11:44am on 26 Feb 2009 Most of the games in Champions League haven't being great.

Liverpool did what we always do in Europe and Paddy Power was hit badly by myself..happy days..

Ignore Liverpool at you're peril in Europe.

Might have not being the most exciting in Europe this week much like the rest. United vs. Inter was god awful game, even some United fans where I work were commenting how bad it was.

Some of the passing on both sides was sunday league standard at times and how United did not score against a shambles of defence as Inter's is beyond me.

Give credit where credit is due, anyone who didn't see this Liverpool result either have short term memories or have no clue about European football and football in general.

Everyone was wetting their selves over Madrid winning 6-1 at the weekend, against a side that is rubbish and also second rate to their local rivals Sevilla.

Since being beating by Barcelona, they have won 1-0 against Valencia, Villarreal, Deportivo and Racing all at home, beat Osasuna 3-1 at home as well as Betis last weekend. Away from home beat Numancia 2-0, Gijion 4-0 and Mallorca 3-0.

Only 3 are in the top ten and only beat them 1-0 all at home, surely this Liverpool side is better than Valencia, Villarreal and Depor.....which proved to be the case counter the fact the rest, Racing are currently 11th but along with the rest are in a relegation dogfight. Numancia are bottom, Mallorca, Osasuna and Betis are 3rd,4th and 5th from bottom and finally Gijion are 14th.

This result was coming last night and many others like me backed Rafa and the Redmen.

Delighted for Rafa he needed that win last night with all the speculation drummed up by anti-rafa media outlets.

As Martin Samuels said this morning: “Benitez truly is a great coach, because he is a problem solver" - stop dawdling G&H and get him signed up, also get rid of Coco the Clown while you are at along with yourselves.
Scolari fails to step out of Jose's shadow 8:50pm on 09 Feb 2009 Hi phil, decent blog...

I replied to you in you're blog at the start of the season where you criticised me for calling Mr. Scolari the next Christian Gross: you might remember this post,

"He might have the charm of Mourinho and humility of Grant but he could end up been the Brazilian version of Christian Gross.

This is a big moment in the Chelsea Ambramovich reign. He can sign all the Robinho's, Ronaldinho's and Deco's of this world but he will have to turn to the likes of Lampard and Terry to lead Chelsea.

The fraility of Cech should be a worry and the mindset of Drogba if he does stay. Who will take Malouda, Anelka, Wright-Phillips and of course the enigma Shevchenko. Chelsea shot theirselves in the foot by getting rid of Mourinho and i don't see how this man can top even Avram Grants achievements after taken over from Jose.

Chelsea fans can be all happy about his appointment but there should some sceptism. Time will tell. This time next year we could be talking about another new Chelsea manager if Scolari doesn't match at least a Champions League Final."

I do feel sorry for Scolari, but I think he failed not due to the Mourinho factor. The man although a World Cup was out of his debt after being so long out of the club managerial scene, like Christian Gross before him unfortunately for Scolari, he couldn't handle the big players at a big club day in day out.

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