overcoaching?

[SkippyjonJones]

is that part of the problem - does rafa overcoach and stifle the individuals? is he so detailed that the players have no choices in what they do? has creativity and individualism been crushed by the tactical details of rafa's game plans?

Edited November 5, 2007 by SkippyjonJones

[Zoob]

I do sometimes fear that we spend so long working on how to stop world beaters such as Kevin Kilbane from taking the game to us, that our players forget how to play football... I hate how confused and clueless our players look sometimes. Like they really are trying so hard to do what Rafa expects -(particularly when we are defending) that they lose the ability to do the basics a lot of the time.

 

Think Rafa believes that once you have a few set systems (4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 etc...) it shouldn't really matter who is picked to play in the system, everyone should know their role and be able to execute it perfectly. I think this worked very well for Valencia, but is obviously not working so well for us, perhaps due to the nature of our league, and perhaps due to the technical and tactical limitations of some of our players.

[mooks]

I do sometimes fear that we spend so long working on how to stop world beaters such as Kevin Kilbane from taking the game to us, that our players forget how to play football... I hate how confused and clueless our players look sometimes. Like they really are trying so hard to do what Rafa expects -(particularly when we are defending) that they lose the ability to do the basics a lot of the time.

 

Think Rafa believes that once you have a few set systems (4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 etc...) it shouldn't really matter who is picked to play in the system, everyone should know their role and be able to execute it perfectly. I think this worked very well for Valencia, but is obviously not working so well for us, perhaps due to the nature of our league, and perhaps due to the technical and tactical limitations of some of our players.

Thanks for that insight

[Nebraska Red]

i said a while back that some of our players look almost robotic the way they play. very few of them seem to be comfortable when they are away from their allotted positions on the pitch.

 

when we played with Voronin and Kuyt out wide with Torres in the middle, the 2 wide players seemed hell bent on staying in those wide spots regardless of it being the best thing at the time.

 

watching yesterday, we seemed to go sideways or backwards and hardly ever forward as we had no forward player to go to. on 1 occasion in the first half, Gerrard went wide left and there was not a single red shirt in view until the 4th Blackburn defender arrived to finally win the ball.

 

i watched alot of the Barcelona game today and they looked to be playing a different game to us yet again, they move the ball around , switch positions and have defenders in fits. 2 goals from Ronaldhino from the edge of the box due to last ditch fouls by a defender. Barcelona have some good players, but so do we. maybe we are being coached into negativity in an attempt to avoid defeat.

[Zoob]

Thanks for that insight

 

Erm. Your welcome?

[Earl Hafler]

Erm. Your welcome?

 

Ignore him. He has nothing to say.

[boohog]

and have defenders in fits.

 

Carra gets pretty angry sometimes aswell.