Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:43 pm

zarababe wrote:
stmichael wrote:I didn't agree with Rafa's substitutions either. I'd have left Gerrard on until we got the second goal and then made changes.

Gerrard need to be rested.. lets face it Xabi's contribution cost us (and it happens.. perspectibe ppl) .. otherwsie would you be saying that .. Saint

When we took Gerrard off, we had nobody on the pitch who was a leader, given Carra wasn't playing, there was nobody to stamp their personality on the game.

I think at the minute Rafa is stuck between a rock and a hard place in regards to the team. We are now embarking on a run of 7 games over the next 26 days and for a team that has played more than anyone else, that will take its toll. Feel for Rafa in a way though because he should be able to change things against teams like Birmingham and not worry about dropping points. I'll admit that I thought Gerrard looked very tired in the first half and was unusually sloppy and Garcia had a nightmare.

It is frustrating because that is the type of game we should be able to rest players in and still pick up three points, just frustrating that we cannot kill teams off and it makes you wonder how tired the team are as we haven't conceded too many late goals under Rafa in the past yet have conceded 2 in 3 games. Hopefully we will get a second wind and kick on for the rest of the season.

by **zarababe** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:49 pm

HacksawJimDuggin wrote:Morientes is Rafa favourite by the looks of things!!

I wouldn't have changed anything and would have started with Alonso.

Rafa has no favorites, he is a pure footballing man.. Morientes brings sumblime skills to the team when we are playing well, which has been in a lot of games, Morientes has brough that extra quality.

Saint, I know the frustrations, but progress this season has been awesome, and we need to accept that this team is 'work in progress' and these frustrations need to be put in to perspective.

I'm not saying lie down and accept all, rather lets use perspective and be honest about what happened, we scored twice yesterday.. unfortunately one of those goals was for the other side.. no-doubt poor old Xabi will have had it drilled in to him '' clear it out Shabi.. cest''

by **bigmick** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:56 pm

In fairness to Rafa he took Gerrard off when we were 1-0 up and absolutely dominant. Many people came on here a couple of weeks ago and laughed at Lyndsy's suggestion that had our captain left in the Summer we could have been as low as eighth or tenth in the league. I didn't laugh because I think she's about right, maybe sixth or seventh.
Having said all of that, had they not scored a freak goal and we not missed a sackfull of chances then we wouldn't even be talking about the substitution. One thing that people are not taking into account os the fact that it also gave Alonso a run. Much better to give him 20 minutes than to risk him losing sharpness. Rafa was fair enough bringing Stevie G off, it was just one of those things we didn't win the game.

by **Sabre** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:07 pm

I can't blame the sustitution. The minutes before de substitution were mad, with lots of mad counterattacks from Liverpool at full pace. Gerrard had to be tired atm. Riise's stamina doesn't stop puzzling me, what a player!

by **115-1073096938** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:05 am

bigmick wrote:In fairness to Rafa he took Gerrard off when we were 1-0 up and absolutely dominant. Many people came on here a couple of weeks ago and laughed at Lyndsy's suggestion that had our captain left in the Summer we could have been as low as eighth or tenth in the league. I didn't laugh because I think she's about right, maybe sixth or seventh.
Having said all of that, had they not scored a freak goal and we not missed a sackfull of chances then we wouldn't even be talking about the substitution. One thing that people are not taking into account os the fact that it also gave Alonso a run. Much better to give him 20 minutes than to risk him losing sharpness. Rafa was fair enough bringing Stevie G off, it was just one of those things we didn't win the game.

Mick, i have total respect for your posts but not only do i think thats bollox i think its damn right disrespectfull to our manager and the players that are currently here.

Gerrard would have got us 30million, Rafa would have replaced him with two 15million pound players. I'd rather have two players of Alonso's class than one of Gerrard's.

by **A.B.** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:47 am

Absolutely spot on, Stu. The work the entire team put into our form in the past two or three months is why we've done well, not because of Gerrard alone.

Very disrespectful to the players such as Carragher,Finnan,Reina,Hyppia,Alonso,Kewell,Crouch,etc... who played a huge part to the run we had. I'm disapointed with those comments.

by **bigmick** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:52 am

Before yous two form an unholy truce let me explain the point of my post. You can't on the one hand say that we could do without Gerrard and still be lying second in the league, then on the other hand say that it's absolutely essential that he remains on the pitch for the whole of 90 minutes every single game. I agree our success is not down to one player, therefore when we are 1-0 up and dominating against 10 men, surely it's not unreasonable for the manager to take Gerrard off with 20 minutes to go?

by **A.B.** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:09 am

How is it unreasonable? Alonso is perfectly capable of controling a game himself, he's done it in the past and it's not like it was his first game for the club. He and we as a team had a bit of bad luck.

by **tel** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:29 am

No doubt the team selection and taking Stevie off had everything to do with the weekend game at Chelsea.

But we should have been able to flog a 10 man side struggling to win games away from home regardless of team selection.

We werent able to kill them off. Simple as. Our strikers are not deadly and with Stevie off the park, if someone ar ses a goal against us we have limited options to get it back.

We can talk about Alonso's misfortune but that clown Heskey should have put them up 3 minutes before. Thankfully he is doing at another club what he used to do for us, but if we're relying on Crouch to score goals and kill off games, we are no better off than in the days we had Heskey in a red shirt.

Thankfully we have one now at the club that with a bit of fitness will do the job for us. And Morientes will score more with Robbie on the park as well because Robbie has movement, and Crouch doesnt, making it easy work for defenders.

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