Pityful, Lazy, no desire, embarressment, cowardly...

[Chili Palmer]

I hope Rafa is using those exact words letting rip at our players at the minute, bar Finnen and Momo, all the rest deserve everything they get. I know super fans will come on and say we must support the team, and when they play I will, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the majority of our players are playing at 50%.

 

After that performance I am embarressed but I get the feeling that our players are not and that makes it worse.

Edited October 22, 2006 by Kieran

[Swipe]

I'm sick of seeing Garcia bottle out of tackles. It's symptimatic of whats wrong at the moment.

 

Not enough players up for a battle.

 

And Rafa is partly to blame. His selections are mind-boggling some times.

 

He'll move everyone around, yet he won't move SG into his best position til its too late. Bizarre.

 

We needs tougher players to come in.

 

That's the worst Alonso performnace i've ever seen. Was awful.

 

Kuyt got no service and even when he got the ball he was trying to beat two or three players.

 

And hopefully Rafa will bite the bullet and replace Pennant. Nowhere near good enough.

[Maharajkumar of Vizianagram]

I've noticed during our last couple of losses that there's a real lack of urgency in the final 10 minutes when we should be pressing for an opening.

[Cooldude]

I've noticed during our last couple of losses that there's a real lack of urgency in the final 10 minutes when we should be pressing for an opening.

 

Well I've noticed during our last couple of losses that there's a real lack of urgency full stop

[Bootle Buck]

Too many times this season we have gone behind and showed no impetus to get back in the game. Rather it was just a matter of time before we conceded again. I don't think it matter who Rafa plays at the moment too many are playing without confidence and heart. It is very similar to Rafa's first season. Gerrard needs to dominate games wherever he plays but he isn't. This time last season he had 6 or 7 goals(CL qualifiers included). He kept us in many games early in the season.

 

Reina, Riise, Carra, Alonso, Gerrard, Garcia are all way below last season's standards. Penant, Gonzalez, Bellamy and Aurellio have been average to poor. That's too many players who aren't performing.

 

I hope last season wasn't a one off and we revert back to our league form of 2004-05, which was very frustrating and inconsistent.

[Jimi Rojo]

The big question is why are the players not up for it? Their hearts are not in it at all. Rafa seems to have lost them, starting with gerrard.

[Swipe]

The big worry this season is that when we go behind, the game looks over.

 

We just look incapbable of getting back into it.

Edited October 22, 2006 by Swipe

[Chili Palmer]

The big question is why are the players not up for it? Their hearts are not in it at all. Rafa seems to have lost them, starting with gerrard.

 

The difference with the big clubs and the likes of man city, everton and boro is that they back their managers, if Rafa has lost the players then we will get different players! there will only be one winner.

 

BTW I don't think this is the case, I think for some reasons we are still feeling the effects of all the internatonals and Rafa not getting a chance to really influence his players, hopefully that will change in the next couple of months.

[Guest redman in wales]

The big question is why are the players not up for it? Their hearts are not in it at all. Rafa seems to have lost them, starting with gerrard.

 

 

if thats the big question then the big answer is rotation. rotation affects the fluiity of the team, but it alls affects each player mentally

 

it affects peoples mind-sets and there's no reason for them to play well, because they might not play for the next 3 games.

 

Crouch is the perfect example. scores in 4 out of the first 5 games he starts, comes off the bench and scores a couple. and he still starts on the bench. where is his passion gone... taken away by rotation. he can do everything right, score the winner in bordaux, and is then benched for a big game against utd.

 

its no good having fit players at the end of the season when everyone else is tired if we're too far behind to catch up.

 

Remember when crouch first signed for us... couldn't score - he played 14 games in a row... YES 14 conecutive games. .... and he was ok at the end of the season wasn't he??

[Bailo]

I hate to say it, but the lineup today reminded me of GH taking us to Boro, surrendering the game beforehand and during with limited adventure. Thing is then we were top of the table.

 

I'd drop Alonso, move Gerrard into the middle and have Gonzalez and Pennant starting every game on rails parallel to the touchline. Early season JP was getting past people out wide, recently he seems to be cutting inside, whether thats under orders or not I don't know.

 

Agger can't come back soon enough either.

 

Afraid though that we're just going to have to play Carra back into some kind of form, f*** knows what is wrong with our defence at the moment. Can we have Didi back?

Edited October 22, 2006 by Phorum Dunce

[surfaris]

when we re on the road:

we were always play like that. tendency to play long ball, long pass, "air-hope-cross", when we got the ball, our player, just stand then pass to other players, the problems they tend to pass it long, difficult ball rather than MOVE, & PASS COLLECTIVELY forward

(not exactly gung ho) just take it to opposition space. then we sometime (or was it most time?) play to quick AKA killer/long/hapefull ball to our forward.

combine with s**** pathetic overcautious(do we really need finnan, riise stick at the back when attacking?), slow snail kinda approach will kill watever number 19 we want to achive

 

i ve seen it enuf.

 

let s watch barca vs madrid tonite. some can argue, spanish game you have more time. what a bull. arsenal can play real football down the years, even united show us interchange passses/collective movement infront of our penalty box today. heck, we show the rest of the world what pass & move mean to the success of the club in the 80s.