Liverpool FC Forum

s@int wrote:So another game passes, another failure in the league comes to pass, another night of sleeplessness and what ifs and whys and while we are still in it with an outside shout its going to take a miracle to turn things around and/or an implosion by the teams around us to get us back on track, something which wont happen.

What im going to do now is talk about Rafa. Its no secret that at times i've been completely livid at him and that i dont see what all the adulation is about. Fine he is a top manager, thats granted, but the time of me praising and defending everything someone does at the club, player or manager passed a long time ago, i can no longer defend our club over our under achievement in the league. The way i see it people are there to do a job. When things go well they rightly get the plaudits, equally when they are falling short theres no room for sentiment, not at this club.

It says it all when i have more confidence and belief in us beating Inter Milan, than i do of us beating Wigan! So im going to try and pick out the faults we have with Rafa currently, something ive been argueing with many in here for ages.

Squad

Rafa believes having 24 players available for matches is more of a benefit than having a quality 14-15. I think this is where we start to fall down. In Rafas ideal he believes - or thinks he believes all players are equal within the squad. Theres no other way to explain his formations and tactics from game to game. He thinks swapping in Sissoko for Mascherano or Voronin for Torres will have no bearing on the team. Thats why we get debacles like Reading away, Birmingham at home to name two where the team has suffered as a direct result of him thinking we can simply swap in players and achieve the same result regardless. And while i think most of the teams are pish in this league, you simply cant just throw anyone in and expect a result because as we've found out to our cost, a team can take the points or a point from one chance. I believe he needs to narrow his pool of players down and remove quantity and replace it with quality, stop the rotation. Theres too many average players brought in to replace better players and it costs us.

Mentality

Theres no league winning mentality at Anfield and hasnt been for years. I dont know why this is the case but the finger of blame must be shared between manager and players but mostly at the manager. He has to get them prepared, motivated and believing that they can win football matches. he has to get them believing they would run through brick walls to achieve a result. In Europe he has this winning mentality off to a tee and maybe that comes from himself, he seems more confident of his own ability in Europe than in the league. As mentioned previously how can we lose 3-1 at Reading and then batter Marsielle away 4-0 within the space of a few days? Its quite unbelievable. When he picks his sides in Europe, with the exception of Marseille at home his teams are always strong and well prepared compared to the league. Its like he can only focus on one thing per season (usually the CL) but ill move on to that one in a bit.

Incentive

Theres no incentive for any player to do well. At all.

There's no guts shown, or fire. Players are lacklustre and lethargic and play within themselves and i believe its a big factor of his rotation system. Why should Benayoun bust a gut and run himself into the turf if he knows he might be on the bench next game regardless? Crouch is a great example of what im talking about. The poor lad has been through the mill at this club. he came in and struggled against all odds before finally finding some form and goals. Last year he was our leading scorer but found himself dropped after matches inwhich he'd scored in! This season he was frustrated early doors, couldnt get a game, when he did he was out the next game. Then he finally found some form around the Beşiktaş match and low and behold found himself benched again. Kuyt was a regular at the beginning of the season and while not scoring many he was playing well. he now seems to have lost all his infectious enthusiasm, he's been in and out of the side, played out of position (as has Crouch and Voronin) is it any wonder we only have one striker with the ability to net? In the good old days youd lose form, go into the ressies for a bit, fight for your place and return a renwed player with fire and vigour for the shirt, we no longer have that - just a team thats switched around like a puzzle. You cant expect players to come in and out one week to the next and expect them to hit form, it doesnt happen.


Focus

Rafa is brilliant in Europe. He knows what he wants, everything is clear to him. The belief he has transpires to the players and the crowd. As i said earlier i have more faith in us beating Milan than Wigan. In the league his focus is loose. He says he concentrates only on the game at hand, but his lineups and tactics tell another story, especially around Champions League matches. Its an infuriating trait because as a top manager, probably one of the best in the world he should be capable of getting our players to perform against lowly sides and to outwit clowns like Bruce and Coppell. He's not comfortable with this league and i think it shows.

Consistency and Cohesion

The team has no cohesion. No one knows whats happening week to week. The fact that the team don't hear the lineup until an hour before kick off is another reason we probably don't see the best from our team. How can you be prepared mentally if you dont know whether you are starting? How can you be prepared if you dont know who you are playing with? I know people will mention training, but a match scenario is different, theres pressure and things at stake.

Theres a distinct lack of movement and vision in the team, but can you blame them? Players strike up an understanding of each other tahts how you get a rhythm and vibrancy to your team. For instance Finnan last night setting up Torres, he must have known Torres would be there as he cooly slotted the ball across the box. That kind of movement, vision and passing comes from understanding and playing with the same personnel which is why we only see it in flashes. We lack that in bucketloads. Our wide areas are always switching week to week. Aurellio with Kewell, Kewell with Benayoun, Benayoun with Riise, Risse with babel, it goes on and on - its no wonder we are disjointed! Our attack changes weekly. Theres no partnerships, theres no working together, no cohesion.

Subs and changes

Always too late. Last night Kewell should have been hauled off. I like him but he was detrimental to the team last night. But Rafa didnt make the change earlier enough and gave no time for Yossi to do anything. Then he takes off a winger and throws on Kuyt into Pennants position? Why? Thats not the move of a genius world class manager, thats desperation. Then Crouch comes on and its a mess. No one knows where each other is playing, its headless chicken time. I can count on two hands over four years the amount of workable substitutions, most of the time his substitutions are completely baffling, replacing players and playing them out of position or replacing players who are causing the opposition problems instead of ones that arnt pulling their weight.

Ripped from rawk

Ciggy wrote:Oh well we are out of it again, atleast its not our Rafas fault tonight.
Our players just arnt good enough, give him time he win us it.
We will win the Champions league now wana bet 

Lando_Griffin wrote:One of our best players this season was out for over 2 months with a stress-fracture. (Pennant.)

Our best winger has only just come back from basically a 5-year injury lay-off.





Sissoko's form has been woeful, even by his standards.

But it's all Rafa's fault, isn't it, folks?

Emerald Red wrote:

Lando_Griffin wrote:I have to have a little giggle now and then at some of the opinions on here.

I think some people need to look at the realities of this season, rather than the "money-spent" note they scribbled down in pre-season.

For example:

We have been without 1/2 of our preferred central defensive pairing for approximately 4 months now. (4 months out of the 5 played, I might add).

Previous to this, we were without our 1st-choice cb for a couple of important league games.

Arguably our first-choice leftback has only just managed to make it back from a ruptured achillies.

Our first-choice rightback has been in and out of the team with injury.

Our back-up centreback is out injured.

One of our best players this season was out for over 2 months with a stress-fracture. (Pennant.)

Our best winger has only just come back from basically a 5-year injury lay-off.

Alonso, (who I and Rafa rate much higher than the majority of you on here, apparently) has been out for the best part of 4 months this season, having been one of our best players previously.

Gerrard was out with a broken toe, aggravated on International duty.

Torres was out for over a month, interspersed with a 45-minute appearance against Arsenal.

Crouch got himself banned for 3 matches.

Sissoko's form has been woeful, even by his standards.

But it's all Rafa's fault, isn't it, folks?

Injuries. A point which I highlighted in an earlier post. Our injury list this season has been appalling to say the least, and a lot of key players as well. It's obviously had a detrimental effect on the team, as it would. It's just that one mediocre result like last night's has been made 1 million times worse because of these earlier setbacks in the season that were more than likely caused by these injuries.

i'm sorry but i don't agree with that.

every team gets injuries - chelsea have constantly  had more players out injured than us at any one time including terry, carvalho, drogba, maluda, cech and cudichini at the same time. you could argue that they have more money in which to buy a better squad of replacements, but when you look at some of their replacements: hillario, ben-haim, belletti, pizzaro, sidwell, none of whome cost the earth.

yes we've been unlucky - but that's what building a squad is all about.

s@int wrote:I don't believe our team is not good enough to beat Wigan, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Reading etc etc. Maybe not good enough to beat the mancs, Chelsea, Arsenal, but its more than good enough to beat the Wigans of this world.

If we can't beat these "little teams" it shows we have problems, problems with tactics , motivation, not enough matchwinners, rotation, formation, balance,not picking our best team...... take your pick of excuses.

We can beat the best teams in Europe but we arn't good enough to beat Wigan? I don't think so.

JoeTerp wrote:If we would have beat Wigan, this would now be a non issue, we would be 10 back with a game in hand, and on the fringe but certainly a part of the race. here are some of Rafa's quotes:
'I do not think there is a lack of confidence, we need more luck and to score the chances we are creating.'

'We are creating chances but not taking them. One more would have killed the game.

'We deserved more than we got. Their keeper made some very good saves, but we still made enough chances to have won the game.

'The league table is looking difficult, we need to reduce that gap but we must not start to look at the table too much, just keep going and keep creating chances.

'We can reduce the gap, but it is best not to talk about it, just go out and score the goals we are missing.'

He added: 'It is difficult to explain why our home form is not good. We are controlling all the games, we are passing the ball well, controlling almost everything. But we paid for one mistake.

'There is no need to analyse the four holiday games, we deserved to beat Manchester City, we deserved to win against Wigan, while we beat Portsmouth and Derby, but we have lost four points in these games and it has meant the gap is bigger.

'There is no point being too critical of performances. We know we were much better than City and Wigan but we know we need to win, that is simple.'


If Gerrard scores one of his easier chances that you have to say you expected them to go in before they were saved its a different story, what the hell does Rafa have to do with Gerrard not putting those away.

Mascherano had two chances (one was the gerrard free kick rebound that he couldn't get to) granted he isn't really a goal scorer but other people had chances two, Torres was caught about 8 inches offside before scoring, Pennant passed back to Gerrard which was a little outside and too the right from a great shooting position but should have made the keeper work more especially with two players in the 6, Kewell had a nice shot that was just high before coming off, and had another chance that had great link up play but a poor shot into the defender.

It can be debated how realistic some of those chances were, but certainly there was enough in the formation, talent and tactics to get the 2nd goal without any changes, and I consider us unlucky for not getting the goal and killing  the game off.  AND I don't need to tell you how flukey  their goal was.  I would put the draw against Wigan more on the players not playing at their normal level and bad luck than against Rafa.  The teamsheet might not have been perfect and he made mistakes with the subs, but the teamsheet and tactis should have been good enough to get the result.

LegBarnes wrote:Sorry, rafa proves day in day out more and more that he is lacking at this level of football or this league, i cant make my mind up which yet but he sure is lacking.

I love the guy dont get me wrong but i am at a stage now where is it the manager i love or the club i have to stick by and it will always be the club.

So i aint going to say get rafa out, but i don't think he will go to the end of the season but if he dont get to semi's of CL or (and) last 4 of FA cup and get us 4th or better his days are numbered at LFC that is for sure and i cant say i would be really upset if that happens now.

Lets face it with his relationship with the owners he looks like he is gone anyway at  the end of the season.

Also i have to add, people say you have to blame players for poor performances as well as the manager but i disagree. The only person that should be blamed is the boss after all i get the feeling that the players dont respect the manager any more and why should they its clear rafa thinks he is the man. i think now, maybe rafa's ego has out grown his seat as liverpool boss.

Does he put out these crazy line ups playing people out of position to prove he is a genius?

I get that impression with him, seems he is trying to prove a point rather then win a football match like with his rotation, it seems he started this rotation thing with the idea it was a new concept, that it might change football forever but now the wheels have fallen off and now the downsides of rotation are clearly showing (upset players , players lacking form, low confidence , to name a few ) most managers would have put there hands up and said maybe i got it wrong , but not rafa he keeps on making the same mistake over and over again.

so should we blame the players because they dont know if they are playing week in week out? NO.

Should we blame gerrard because he has the pressure of every one on him to win games? NO.

One man should take the blame, the man who sets up , trains and organises them, rafa. We need a leader not a dictator.

LegBarnes wrote:Sorry, rafa proves day in day out more and more that he is lacking at this level of football or this league, i cant make my mind up which yet but he sure is lacking.

I love the guy dont get me wrong but i am at a stage now where is it the manager i love or the club i have to stick by and it will always be the club.

So i aint going to say get rafa out, but i don't think he will go to the end of the season but if he dont get to semi's of CL or (and) last 4 of FA cup and get us 4th or better his days are numbered at LFC that is for sure and i cant say i would be really upset if that happens now.

Lets face it with his relationship with the owners he looks like he is gone anyway at  the end of the season.

Also i have to add, people say you have to blame players for poor performances as well as the manager but i disagree. The only person that should be blamed is the boss after all i get the feeling that the players dont respect the manager any more and why should they its clear rafa thinks he is the man. i think now, maybe rafa's ego has out grown his seat as liverpool boss.

Does he put out these crazy line ups playing people out of position to prove he is a genius?

I get that impression with him, seems he is trying to prove a point rather then win a football match like with his rotation, it seems he started this rotation thing with the idea it was a new concept, that it might change football forever but now the wheels have fallen off and now the downsides of rotation are clearly showing (upset players , players lacking form, low confidence , to name a few ) most managers would have put there hands up and said maybe i got it wrong , but not rafa he keeps on making the same mistake over and over again.

so should we blame the players because they dont know if they are playing week in week out? NO.

Should we blame gerrard because he has the pressure of every one on him to win games? NO.

One man should take the blame, the man who sets up , trains and organises them, rafa. We need a leader not a dictator.