by bigmick » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:18 am
I voted "others" and here's why (aside from the fact that I always do). I actually think there are a combination of reasons why the squad is thinner than it ought to be, and it's just too simplistic to say it's all Rafa's fault (although it mostly is IMHO) or it's all the owners fault (which it certainly partly is).
So why is the squad thin? Well firstly it's obviously not thin numerically, we've got just as big a squad as anyone else and probably bigger than most. The thinness is purely a question of quality, and the apparent lack of it has taken us seemingly by surprise. It's worth noting though that the squad is the same as the one which almost won the Premiership last season barring two players, and we have replaced one with a fella who most would accept is actually an improvement. The fact Aquilani is injured has been a bitter pill to swallow. If we make the assumption that he's quite good (and I suspect he's at least that) then suddenly Lucas is coming off the bench occasionally, perhaps starting at Home against Hull. Spearing is still waiting to make his debut, Masherano is simply being asked to do what he does best and all is well in midfield. Gerrard isn't having to come back and carry the central midfielders, so the fact we don't have a viable alternative to him off Torres isn't so obvious.
Now all that would look good, and the fact (I think it is a fact anyway) that neither Lucas nor Spearing is actually up to it would be neither so obvious nor such a pressing issue. Obviously the feeling that the likes of Lucas and even more obviously Dossena and the like are some way short of being good enough is down to recruitment and therefore the manager. That said although neither were cheap, neither were bank breakers either so we probably shouldn't be too harsh. It's also a factor that Rafa seems to have gone into this season with the feeling that he really was going to give the fringe players a good go (Lucas was fairly obviously earmarked for a starting slot in Aquilani's absense fairly early on). Unfortunately though, the likes of him, Babel, Dossena and the like simply haven't been able to take their opportunity. You could argue the players themselves are at fault (with justification in Babels case I think) but equally I suppose you could argue we bought the wrong players, and/or Rafa should have known they weren't going to be up to it anyway having seen them in training etc.
Allied to that, too many of our good players haven't played well. The central defence has frankly been an embarressment, but with one of the four centre halves injured and another being purely a cheap stop gap, we haven't had much choice. Normally we build it around Carragher, but he's been poor to be honest and it comes to something when our most consistent defener has been the kid at left full back, and I'm far from convinced he's any World beater either. Masherano has been flat, Gerrard a mile away from his best and even Torres has been fitful, despite scoring shedloads of goals. Riera is a bit of a mystery, Kuyt hasn't hit the hieghts of last season and even the promising Benayoun has gone off the boil recently.
There are a couple of areas where the manager is definately culpable IMHO. We have desperately needed a cover for Torres for a long time now, and the fact we went into the new season without any is criminal really. Equally, although it hasn't impacted yet, the right back slot is woefully short with Deggen being the cover.
I think the owners could have dug deeper for sure, but they did at least allow Rafa to spend all the Alonso money and some on top which is more than the managers at Man Utd and Arsenal did.
All in all and in conclusion, it's mostly Rafa's fault IMHo with a little bit of the owners as well, and a little bit of bad luck. Also, the squad isn't quite as thin as it looks IMHO, if more people were playing well (or indeed if anyone was) it wouldn't look quite so grim.
Last edited by
bigmick on Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".