Liverpool FC Forum

Reg wrote:

made in UK wrote:

Reg wrote:Compare that ineffective performance tonight with Ure's performance against Milan.... worlds apart.

We are sh!t, because we play sh!t.

We always play down to our opponents level, we cant even overwhelm some village team from Pikeyland Romania.

Its pathetic, it really is.

You moan about the Rafa "bashers"

yet you make posts like this 

who trains them, who picks them, who enforces the tactics we play?

Rafa picks the side and tactics, I have no problem with that but its upto the idiots on the field to score the goals and thats where we were let down last night.

Even my seven year old boys lost interest and played with their lego.

Who bought "the idiots on the field" Reg ?

s@int wrote:

Reg wrote:

made in UK wrote:

Reg wrote:Compare that ineffective performance tonight with Ure's performance against Milan.... worlds apart.

We are sh!t, because we play sh!t.

We always play down to our opponents level, we cant even overwhelm some village team from Pikeyland Romania.

Its pathetic, it really is.

You moan about the Rafa "bashers"

yet you make posts like this 

who trains them, who picks them, who enforces the tactics we play?

Rafa picks the side and tactics, I have no problem with that but its upto the idiots on the field to score the goals and thats where we were let down last night.

Even my seven year old boys lost interest and played with their lego.

Who bought "the idiots on the field" Reg ?

Rafa did mate, but I dont understand why talented players have to reduce themselves to pub team standarde of penetration and finish just because the come to Anfield!

They´re good players, Rafa bought good players... but last night´s complete lack of ruthlessness in front of goal... you want to blame the manager for that?

Rooney or Drogba would have slotted 5 last night.

Reg wrote:Who bought "the idiots on the field" Reg ?

Rafa did mate, but I dont understand why talented players have to reduce themselves to pub team standarde of penetration and finish just because the come to Anfield!

They´re good players, Rafa bought good players... but last night´s complete lack of ruthlessness in front of goal... you want to blame the manager for that?

Rooney or Drogba would have slotted 5 last night.[/quote]
I blame Rafa for not changing the tactics and formation while Torres is out. I blame Rafa for not changing the tactics yesterday too. I blame Rafa that we have no creative players capable of breaking down poor teams who turn up with any sort of organised defence.

Instead he relies on hard work and hoping for a mistake rather than creating genuine chances.

So yeah I want to blame Rafa for that mate.

Reg wrote:

s@int wrote:

Reg wrote:

made in UK wrote:

Reg wrote:Compare that ineffective performance tonight with Ure's performance against Milan.... worlds apart.

We are sh!t, because we play sh!t.

We always play down to our opponents level, we cant even overwhelm some village team from Pikeyland Romania.

Its pathetic, it really is.

You moan about the Rafa "bashers"

yet you make posts like this 

who trains them, who picks them, who enforces the tactics we play?

Rafa picks the side and tactics, I have no problem with that but its upto the idiots on the field to score the goals and thats where we were let down last night.

Even my seven year old boys lost interest and played with their lego.

Who bought "the idiots on the field" Reg ?

Rafa did mate, but I dont understand why talented players have to reduce themselves to pub team standarde of penetration and finish just because the come to Anfield!

They´re good players, Rafa bought good players... but last night´s complete lack of ruthlessness in front of goal... you want to blame the manager for that?

Rooney or Drogba would have slotted 5 last night.

They are decent enough players but they are so obviously unmotivated and that is 100% down to the manager. Look I'm in a well paid job but if I'm not motivated by my team leader and companyetc then I'm not going to try quite as hard as I otherwise would, that's just human nature. Every one needs an inspirational leader, someone you look up to and who gets you fired up for that extra effort and that is what the massively over paid football managers have to deliver, and most of them do.

Being a manager is a hell of a lot more than just a glorified coach which is all Rafa is in my opinion. He is solid, if very negative, tactically but he doesn't have that extra dimension which is needed and I don't think he ever will have it, at least not for the prem.

stmichael wrote:on aquilani, he shouldn't be playing as one of the 2 in a 4-2-3-1. he should be playing higher up the park with gerrard dropping back (even though i don't really like gerrard there either). it also doesn't help that the movement around him is almost non-exitent at times. last night we moved the ball far too slowly.

Spot on, our movement both of players and the ball was very poor.

s@int wrote:

stmichael wrote:on aquilani, he shouldn't be playing as one of the 2 in a 4-2-3-1. he should be playing higher up the park with gerrard dropping back (even though i don't really like gerrard there either). it also doesn't help that the movement around him is almost non-exitent at times. last night we moved the ball far too slowly.

Spot on, our movement both of players and the ball was very poor.

The thing is though that even when we scored I couldn't get too excited because by then I was so completely catatonic with boredom that I hardly noticed it.

It really was one of the most depressingly performances I have seen though and I would love it if Rafa just once could say something like that in the post match interviews. Just be honest and say we were when we like all good managers seem able to do, rather than the incredibly tired lines about us working hard and creating chances blah blah blah.

s@int wrote:

Reg wrote:Who bought "the idiots on the field" Reg ?

Rafa did mate, but I dont understand why talented players have to reduce themselves to pub team standarde of penetration and finish just because the come to Anfield!

They´re good players, Rafa bought good players... but last night´s complete lack of ruthlessness in front of goal... you want to blame the manager for that?

Rooney or Drogba would have slotted 5 last night.

I blame Rafa for not changing the tactics and formation while Torres is out. I blame Rafa for not changing the tactics yesterday too. I blame Rafa that we have no creative players capable of breaking down poor teams who turn up with any sort of organised defence.

Instead he relies on hard work and hoping for a mistake rather than creating genuine chances.

So yeah I want to blame Rafa for that mate.[/quote]
The formation problem is it worked (at times) when it had Alonso in it, but Rafa simply has shaped the team/squad and bought players to fit that ONE formation. That's why we've gone from having four strikers who could be rotated to Torres and fill-ins.

Someone mentioned that it wasn't the formation, well frankly it was. Even if you consider the game important enough to field a strong side, I would not have started with Carra at RB and Mascherano in a DM role. We didn't need a DM at home to a Romanian village side, we could have probably had Aquilani and Lucas or dropped Gerrard alongside Aquilani and fielded a second striker or at least someone more attacking than Mascherano.

The problem with width remains, while I see Kuyt again got singled out for criticism and his goals apparently aren't contribution enough despite him scoring FOUR TIMES AS MANY GOALS AS EGGNOG in the past nine games and who doesn't get half the stick. I can imagine it if Kuyt had scored "just a nod in", or from some it probably "didn't come right off the middle" or some such criticism. I have to laugh because Riera, Gerrard and Aquilani supposedly are more creative, better on the ball etc and they quite often do FA which is the same level of criticism they get (compared to Kuyt)

I hope this doesn't have a negative consequence for Sunday, we put out 1st XI and got a 2nd rate result against a 3rd rate side. If we lose on Sunday then 4th will look a bit hopeful.

And I wholeheartedly agree Rafa is too wooden in his management, that he seems to drain any flair out of players and doesn't know the meaning of the word change. I'm all for giving the players on the pitch a chance, but you have to consider how long the players on the bench would need to turn the game around and surely they need at least 25 minutes instead of what they get from Rafa. How often has he made two changes at once? I just cannot see us winning the title with his one dimensional approach and team.

JoeTerp wrote:watching it back for the 2nd time, it didn't seem that bad to me. Gerrard could have had three. Reira and Aurelio had decent chances, Kuyt had a chance, N'gog had another good chance other the the goal and a couple of half chances, Skrtel had easy header he put over. We certainly could and should have played better but it was far from one chance, one goal. Like Rafa said after the game, if Gerrard scored that chance in the first 30 seconds it could have been a totally different game.

Plus its all about getting through, I guess I didn't get the memo that cup competitions in the knockout phases were about form.  We have a lead, and didn't allow an away goal.  Just one away goal for us will mean they will need 3 to get through, and that isn't happening.

Yes but you do realise that this was a team who have just had a winter break and who play in a sh1t league don't you? My god if we hadn't of had a few chances it would have been a complete fecking disgrace, the problem is that those chances should have been goals not just chances and we should have played far more positively, playing a DM against a team that parks the bus, where is the bloody logic in that?

JoeTerp wrote:watching it back for the 2nd time, it didn't seem that bad to me. Gerrard could have had three. Reira and Aurelio had decent chances, Kuyt had a chance, N'gog had another good chance other the the goal and a couple of half chances, Skrtel had easy header he put over. We certainly could and should have played better but it was far from one chance, one goal. Like Rafa said after the game, if Gerrard scored that chance in the first 30 seconds it could have been a totally different game.

Plus its all about getting through, I guess I didn't get the memo that cup competitions in the knockout phases were about form.  We have a lead, and didn't allow an away goal.  Just one away goal for us will mean they will need 3 to get through, and that isn't happening.

Kinnell Joe 10 out of 10 for courage above and beyond the call of duty for watching that TWICE mate