Rafa over the past few games

[Bootle Buck]

I have to say despite being a great admirer of his, he got it wrong. On Saturday he was at fault for starting Dudek despite whatever agreement he had. This is a huge club and winning trophies is what it's all about. Keeping certain players happy in certain situations should come secondary.

Also when 3-1 down he chose not to put on Bellamy despite the fact that he had been in great form recently. We had an excellent chance to defend our trophy and push on after good results v Spurs and Bolton.

 

Tonight he got it all wrong (unless he didn't really care about the outcome). This was a chance to advance to the SF stage and bounce back from Saturday's loss. Instead he put togethor an odd mix of players. Palletta and Peltier were brought in with Hyppia and Warnock which gave us a completely strange back four playing infront of a golakeeping lacking in confidence and no anchor in midfield to sit infront of the back four. We were completely picked apart by the pace and movement of Aliadierre and Baptiste. Palletta and Peltier were like Lambs to the slaughter.

 

Even then when we are fighting to get back he sends Carra on instead of Crouchy an even more baffling move.

 

As I said I like Rafa but these two games have left me baffled by some of his decisions.

[anfieldgaz]

I have to say despite being a great admirer of his, he got it wrong. On Saturday he was at fault for starting Dudek despite whatever agreement he had. This is a huge club and winning trophies is what it's all about. Keeping certain players happy in certain situations should come secondary.

Also when 3-1 down he chose not to put on Bellamy despite the fact that he had been in great form recently. We had an excellent chance to defend our trophy and push on after good results v Spurs and Bolton.

 

Tonight he got it all wrong (unless he didn't really care about the outcome). This was a chance to advance to the SF stage and bounce back from Saturday's loss. Instead he put togethor an odd mix of players. Palletta and Peltier were brought in with Hyppia and Warnock which gave us a completely strange back four playing infront of a golakeeping lacking in confidence and no anchor in midfield to sit infront of the back four. We were completely picked apart by the pace and movement of Aliadierre and Baptiste. Palletta and Peltier were like Lambs to the slaughter.

 

Even then when we are fighting to get back he sends Carra on instead of Crouchy an even more baffling move.

 

As I said I like Rafa but these two games have left me baffled by some of his decisions.

 

 

SHHHHHHHHHH, thats seen as negative you are not allowed to question the manager. Didnt you know

Edited January 9, 2007 by anfieldgaz

[RafaShanks]

Agree completely.

 

I saw tonight coming to be honest with Rafa saying Jerzy was gonna be in goal tonight. An even bigger howler than Saturday for me.

 

He's a stubborn fella sometimes and his lack of substitutions on occasions frustrates the hell out of me.

 

But he's Rafa...

[hideNseek]

Probably shouldn't say this, but I'm worried about playing Arsenal, Chelsea and Mancs at home in the league. Couldn't take much more of these sort of defeats.

 

Come on Rafa sort them out FFS.

Edited January 9, 2007 by hideNseek

[Guest Anders Honoré]

I won't blame rafa for playing dudek. I think he surprised a lot of people by being so s***.

[anfieldgaz]

I won't blame rafa for playing dudek. I think he surprised a lot of people by being so s***.

 

 

He played bad on sat so why start him tonight?????

[Swipe]

Maybe Rafa is too stubborn at times, or tried to be too clever and surprising with his selections.

 

Some bad mistakes in two huge games. And now where out of both

[Guest Portly]

Rafa reached new heights of meaninglessness in his post-match interviews tonight. He broke through the barrier of stating the obvious, and entered into a zone of complete gibberish.

[anfieldgaz]

Rafa reached new heights of meaninglessness in his post-match interviews tonight. He broke through the barrier of stating the obvious, and entered into a zone of complete gibberish.

 

 

He been watching GH.

[Falconhoof]

He played bad on sat so why start him tonight?????

 

He made a promise. I'd have broken the promise and told Dudek he was finished but Rafa is a bigger man and better manager than any of us can dream of so i won't call him on that.

 

 

What i will call him on is his lack of attacking ambition.

[Guest Anders Honoré]

He played bad on sat so why start him tonight?????

 

maybe the same reason ged played him one last game after announcing kirkland would get a shot at it. he played well and everyone agreed it was a good move to relegate dudek to the bench on a positive note.

[anfieldgaz]

He made a promise. I'd have broken the promise and told Dudek he was finished but Rafa is a bigger man and better manager than any of us can dream of so i won't call him on that.

What i will call him on is his lack of attacking ambition.

 

 

But as a manager you should always put the team and the club first and not any decisions made months before.

[£440,000]

Listening to FiveLive now and they're comparing Rafa with Wenger and not very favourably.

 

Apparently Wenger's a genius and Rafa's not all he's cracked up to be. That's despite the fact that we're above them in the league. Tonight was horrible but it means only five games before Barcelona instead of seven. I know that's of little comfort right now but it might do us a favour in the long run. Fourth place is more important than the Carling Cup. If the Carling Cup'd been a priority for the club we wouldn't have seen the lineup fielded tonight. It may be wrong to prioritise trophies but it's inevitable.

 

In the long term the worst thing about tonight was the injuries to players that have an important first team role to play.

[Mono]

It's up to the board now to cough up and get proper cover for Stevie Finnan and get some cover for the wings now Gonzales and Garcia are both long term casualties. I hope Rafa gets who he wants

[hideNseek]

Listening to FiveLive now and they're comparing Rafa with Wenger and not very favourably.

 

Apparently Wenger's a genius and Rafa's not all he's cracked up to be. That's despite the fact that we're above them in the league. Tonight was horrible but it means only five games before Barcelona instead of seven. I know that's of little comfort right now but it might do us a favour in the long run. Fourth place is more important than the Carling Cup. If the Carling Cup'd been a priority for the club we wouldn't have seen the lineup fielded tonight. It may be wrong to prioritise trophies but it's inevitable.

 

In the long term the worst thing about tonight was the injuries to players that have an important first team role to play.

Surely you mean 3rd place?

[Mono]

 

 

But as a manager you should always put the team and the club first and not any decisions made months before.

Maybe he thought it was a good chance to put him in the shop window!

[anfieldgaz]

Maybe he thought it was a good chance to put him in the shop window!

 

 

At the expense of loosing like we did????.

 

thats not putting the club/team forst though is it?

 

Id let him go on a free after his antics in istanbul, the fall from then to now is awfull.

[£440,000]

Surely you mean 3rd place?

 

No, I mean fourth. Third is obviously better, but fourth place is more important to the club than either of the domestic cups. It's not something I approve of but it's without doubt the way things are.

 

Maybe he thought it was a good chance to put him in the shop window!

 

Apparently no one's shown any interest in him.

[hideNseek]

We can still get 3rd. Thing is Arsenal are fantastic if you let them play but most teams will kick them hard and we don't play like that. They'll lose a few leagues games yet, just worried we may lose more.

[meepins]

Listening to FiveLive now and they're comparing Rafa with Wenger and not very favourably.

 

Apparently Wenger's a genius and Rafa's not all he's cracked up to be. That's despite the fact that we're above them in the league. Tonight was horrible but it means only five games before Barcelona instead of seven. I know that's of little comfort right now but it might do us a favour in the long run. Fourth place is more important than the Carling Cup. If the Carling Cup'd been a priority for the club we wouldn't have seen the lineup fielded tonight. It may be wrong to prioritise trophies but it's inevitable.

 

In the long term the worst thing about tonight was the injuries to players that have an important first team role to play.

Personally I don't think Wenger is anywhere near the manager that Rafa is, thats said they go about things very differently.

 

 

Back to the original post. I just can't imagine Rafa being anything other than extremely calculating so whatever he was doing tonight I'm sure there are some plusses for him as manager.Perhaps he needed to see who he could rely on to get us where we want to be, maybe the plans for next season are already in motion. It's not like he could go out there and play is it , there were some bad performances.

Edited January 9, 2007 by lfc-dub

[Swipe]

We can still get 3rd. Thing is Arsenal are fantastic if you let them play but most teams will kick them hard and we don't play like that. They'll lose a few leagues games yet, just worried we may lose more.

 

We finished fairly comfortable ahead of them last year and for some strange reason i think we will again.

 

but we need to get our act together. We need an impressive win on Saturday, otherwise the confidence will start to ebb away again

[Guest Anders Honoré]

Personally I don't think Wenger is anywhere near the manager that Rafa is

 

when rafa also manages to win the league, I'll believe that.

[psl]

when rafa also manages to win the league, I'll believe that.

 

Indeed. Wenger's won it twice, the second time with a team that went unbeaten throughout the season. I love Rafa to death but its very disrespectful to say Wenger is nowhere near the manager that he is.

[aldo81]

won it 3 times

[psl]

won it 3 times

 

Sorry, you may well be right.