Is Rafa too Technical

[Magic8Ball]

Sometimes it just seems like Rafa uses too much tactics and they just end up confusing the players .

In the Champions league once we were behind, there was no room for tactics anymore it was just attack attack attack - we did that spectacularly well, so well in fact I think we scare like life out of Marseille.

 

Yet in the league, we are often slow ponderous like the players are thinking too much, we score and wonder what to do next. This sadly gives the opposition a chance to get back into the game.

 

I've noticed the other teams (incl top 3) seem to find their attacking weapons and play to them over and over again - while we don't seem to know how to use our attacking talent as we've spent more time teaching them how to defend.

 

 

Sometimes I just wish Rafa would put out a team and say, "let them worry about us".

[Guest RedIsMyColour]

He worries about the opposition too much.

 

He is a very analytical kind of guy and although that can be great when a tactical battle ensues, it can limit us offensively because we are too busy trying to minimise our own weaknesses instead of exploiting the other teams.

[Guest Si]

Attacking in the way we did vs Marsaille wasnt a result of a lack of tactics, just ones that proved effective.

 

Its naive to think tactics involve stifling players. Its about getting the best out of players, if you told them to just go and attack we are talking Kevin Keegan style.

[RafaShanks]

He worries about the opposition too much.

 

Nail on the head. This feckin frustrates the life out of me.

 

We are Liverpool FC. Let them worry about us!!!

[mathewbet1]

He’s trying to replicate the 'crushing machine' system he used effectively for Valencia. In a nutshell it involves compressing the play in all areas of the pitch, forcing the opposition into making mistakes and also controlling the pace of the game. His second policy is obviously rotation which should in theory keep the players fresh at the end of the season. I personally we will see the benefits of the rotation soon, and will also see the teams above us dropping more points than us in the next six months. In order for the crushing machine to work a highly tactical approach is required in order to first nullify the threat of the opposition in order to gain the control of the game. Teams which don’t worry too much about the opposition are teams like Newcastle and countless others that leak goals every week. Look at our defensive record under benitez, it’s a direct result of his management style. Give Benitez the money to buy 2 more world class attackers and the crushing machine would bring us the title at a canter.

[Guz]

He’s trying to replicate the 'crushing machine' system he used effectively for Valencia. In a nutshell it involves compressing the play in all areas of the pitch, forcing the opposition into making mistakes and also controlling the pace of the game. His second policy is obviously rotation which should in theory keep the players fresh at the end of the season. I personally we will see the benefits of the rotation soon, and will also see the teams above us dropping more points than us in the next six months. In order for the crushing machine to work a highly tactical approach is required in order to first nullify the threat of the opposition in order to gain the control of the game. Teams which don’t worry too much about the opposition are teams like Newcastle and countless others that leak goals every week. Look at our defensive record under benitez, it’s a direct result of his management style. Give Benitez the money to buy 2 more world class attackers and the crushing machine would bring us the title at a canter.

 

Two points about that. Firstly I agree about the crushing machine remark in the way we like to compress over the pitch, squeeze the life out of teams and basically force them into crumbling/submission while adding our own quality. It's why I was absolutely chuffed to bits with the 4-1 against Pompey because we did that very well for most of the match like we've done at home to almost all teams over the last two years and are starting to do away from home. It makes our poor home form this season, especially our performance against Arsenal, all the more frustrating and perplexing. But if our away record holds up and continues to be excellent, I'd be very confident of our excellent home form returning also.

 

Secondly, I think too much is made of rotation. He doesnt really rotate (more than any other manager) Carra, Pepe, Agger, Gerrard, Torres etc. Why? Because they're our best players. This idea that Rafa likes a core of 6-7 players only is rubbish imo. Why would a manager not want the same level of [high] quality throughout the team? I do think Rafa looks at fitness/freshness as well as utilising different players for different opposition teams more than most managers, however, I think this excessive rotation that's often talked about is a direct result of our 2nd tier of players (Crouch, Kuyt, Pennant etc.) simply not being good enough to hold down a regular spot in the side. This season was begging someone in that category of players to stand out and cement their spot in the team. At the moment only Arbeloa has been close to that. The rest haven't stepped up enough. If Rafa spends £15m on someone who comes in, puts in lots of sparkling performances and blatantly improves us Rafa isn't gonna rotate him. Just like Torres has. He's not gonna f*** him about and most of the time he'll be in the side. Thats why I desperately want Rafa to be given that sort of serious money in the summer to see what he can do with it.

[John am Rhein]

Sometimes I just wish Rafa would put out a team and say, "let them worry about us".

 

And if/when that doesn't work, what next?

[TheLa]

Is Rafa too Technical

 

No, f*** off.

[Guest Snorky]

Don't know if he's too technical, but I definately believe he thinks to much about the opposition.

[realtarragona]

And if/when that doesn't work, what next?

 

So let's not bother because it might not work?

[Caligula]

Rafa's tactics have been found out on a number of occasions this season. Far too negative

most of the time. We have some fantastic players that aren't being allowed to impose

themselves on games for fear of upsetting the shape of the team.

 

We are very good at defending from open play, poor at defending set pieces and woeful at

convertiing shooting chances to goals. Rafa needs to loosen the shackles a bit.

[John am Rhein]

So let's not bother because it might not work?

 

No, let's not bother because it's a daft idea

[realtarragona]

It's not.

 

I'm not advocating a Kevin Keegan style approach obviously but the team should be given more freedom at times, especially to go forward. It's normally left until the last five minutes when we've failed to break a side down again.

[kick316]

Tactics wins you matches and can win you knock-out competitions. However I think that best squad wins you the league.

 

There are simply too many variables and uncertainties in match to account for. You can have the perfect tactics but how can you plan for a deflected shot from a free kick or an incorrect penalty decision? In one off games these can be minimised but not over the course of a long season.

 

The reason we are behind the leaders are not because of Rafas tactics but simply our squad and especially our attacking players are not as good as the Mancs, Arsenal or Chelsea (or maybe even Spurs).

 

Why have we lost or drawn games this season? It was because we had trouble scoring. Is this due to tactics or due to a lack of enough quality attacking players. If we had a player such as Ronaldo or Messi in our side I believe we would be top of the league by now.

[Guest Snorky]

Sometimes as well I think that Rafa has that many different scenerios for the players they forget half of them.

 

Football is a simple game.

[Rimbeux]

No, we just dont execute well enough or run around fast enough

[Guest Ant]

I said the same thing.

[CaptainXabi]

Tactics wins you matches and can win you knock-out competitions. However I think that best squad wins you the league.

 

There are simply too many variables and uncertainties in match to account for. You can have the perfect tactics but how can you plan for a deflected shot from a free kick or an incorrect penalty decision? In one off games these can be minimised but not over the course of a long season.

 

The reason we are behind the leaders are not because of Rafas tactics but simply our squad and especially our attacking players are not as good as the Mancs, Arsenal or Chelsea (or maybe even Spurs).

 

Why have we lost or drawn games this season? It was because we had trouble scoring. Is this due to tactics or due to a lack of enough quality attacking players. If we had a player such as Ronaldo or Messi in our side I believe we would be top of the league by now.

How do you explain the fact we're in the clutches of Man City and Everton then?

[Guz]

poor at defending set pieces

 

No we're not.

 

If anything, from open play I thought our defenders have looked more uncomfortable than usual.

[kick316]

How do you explain the fact we're in the clutches of Man City and Everton then?

 

Because we've lost and drawn too many games which we should have won?

 

We have not been outplayed in too many games the problem is that we have been absolutely useless in front of goal far too often. The Luton game is a good example. No doubt we were poor but we had several good chances to score but were unable to find the back of the net. Arsenal were similarly poor in their game. They had maybe 2 good chances the whole game yet scored 2. And this without their first choice strikers. What does that say about the quality of our attacking players?

[John am Rhein]

It's not.

 

I'm not advocating a Kevin Keegan style approach obviously but the team should be given more freedom at times, especially to go forward. It's normally left until the last five minutes when we've failed to break a side down again.

 

Attacking more or earlier may not be a bad idea, however putting out a team and saying, "let them worry about us" is a daft idea.

 

At least half of football is about stopping the other team.

[Guest prophet]

He worries about the opposition too much.

 

Hit the nail on HIS head! Hes anti Shanks!

[Rory Fitzgerald]

Sometimes as well I think that Rafa has that many different scenerios for the players they forget half of them.

 

Football is a simple game.

 

I think that too and its from a negative viewpoint as well rather than positive i.e. how will we stop them playing and being effective rather than - lets batter their weak right back or hammer their slow centerhalf.

 

Outside the top 6-7 teams, the rest are really cannon fodder that throw up only the odd surprise. Unfortunately, we seem to be taking the other teams quota for surprises

[pipnasty]

The likes of Manchester United only let the opposition worry about them which is why their defense is so good.

[Magic8Ball]

Houllier once talked about over drilling players - what I think he meant was if you spend too much time working with a player teaching them how to curb their natural tendencies you can start to instroduce a little doubt, which leads to hesitancy in play.

It's clear the players have lots of instructions going through their heads and this slows down their play and removes fluency --- I think if we look we are likely to find typically the players play better when given a week or so between games, time to absorb rafa tactics and technical requirements