this formation Rafa's stumbled upon..

[owenthomas]

Prentice mentioned the word 'stumbled' in an article the other day, i've seen it in the Daily papers, i've heard it said by commentators and Souness said the word "stumble...." last night before he was rudely cut off..

 

did Rafa REALLY just 'stumble' on this formation or is it something he's been thinking of putting into place for a while, only to be denied by injury and loss of form to the players who would be key to making it work - most notably the main player being Alonso?

 

i'm going with the latter personally - i believe 4-2-3-1 has long been Benitez's idea but he just hasn't had the players available/fit/in form to make it work.. these people saying he 'stumbled' upon are wrong, in my humble opinion of course..

 

then again, with Rafa being a lucky manager maybe he did just happen across it?!..

[honourablegeorge]

He probably "stumbled"upon it when he used it for years in Spain. Man, I hate pundits.

[Hassony]

I think it was his idea to use it from the start, thats why Babel was bought, he was just waiting for Babel to settle in

[Billy Dane]

He's clearly just a lucky lucky barstard. His track record indicates he doesn't think about and plan anything. He probably gets his daughters to pick the team over breakfast on a saturday morning, with his wife telling him the tactics to use.

[Andy @ Allerton]

  le2red said:

He's clearly just a lucky lucky barstard. His track record indicates he doesn't think about and plan anything. He probably gets his daughters to pick the team over breakfast on a saturday morning, with his wife telling him the tactics to use.

 

 

Nah - he'll have read the daily papers and watched the opinions of the pundits as they obviously all aren't clueless f*** bunnies full of utter total s****.

[madaboutlfc]

yeah stumbled across.. i mean i seem to remember quite well that we played this in rafas first season here as well but lack of personal caused us to change to a 2 uptop

[Sion]

However he 'stumbled' on it, and how well it might be working, playing Kuyt RM/RW is still stupid

[AE]

They must really hate him.

They really do talk **** don't they!

Worse than forum posters

Edited March 12, 2008 by AE

[Hassony]

  Sion said:

However he 'stumbled' on it, and how well it might be working, playing Kuyt RM/RW is still stupid

 

He is a better option there than Benayoun or Pennant

[fyds]

Meanwhile, in a dark corner somewhere in Hertfordshire, Charlie Nicholas is squatting in a corner, sucking his thumb, shaking and rocking back and forth. 'I just don't understand what Rafa's trying to do - I just don't understand what Rafa's trying to do' he mutters to no-one in particular as Phil Thompson just shakes his head sadly as he wanders by..

[Andy @ Allerton]

  AE said:

They must really hate him.

They really do talk **** don't they!

Worse than forum posters

 

 

Ironically - I think that's where the Death of English newspapers began.

 

When people started comparing strangled rantings of various forumites with the strangled rantings of 'serious newspapers' and the forumites were talking more sense - it made us all realise that;

 

a) They are full of s***

b) They probably have been so for years - but we've never really noticed as much as now

[Ronnie Whelan]

It was mentioned several times last night both during commentary and by 'the experts' in post match analysis. Rafa has obviously stumbled across this formation that seems to work but it wasnt early enough to put in a challenge for the league. Again Rafa is ok for Europe but with all this rotation and zonal marking he will never win the premiership.

[Tones]

  Sion said:

However he 'stumbled' on it, and how well it might be working, playing Kuyt RM/RW is still stupid

 

Best option we have for the position at present. Im sure he wasnt bought for that role but is filling in there now.

[owenthomas]

  Hassony said:

He is a better option there than Benayoun or Pennant

i have a theory on this - shift Gerrard right, put Benayoun behind Torres, keep Babel left.. reckon that'd work nicely..

[Hassony]

  owenthomas said:

i have a theory on this - shift Gerrard right, put Benayoun behind Torres, keep Babel left.. reckon that'd work nicely..

I think benayouns behind torres might work better than Beanyoun on the right

 

but no way we should mess about with where gerrard is playing at the moment considering how he has been playing of late

[fyds]

  Andy @ Allerton said:

Ironically - I think that's where the Death of English newspapers began.

 

When people started comparing strangled rantings of various forumites with the strangled rantings of 'serious newspapers' and the forumites were talking more sense - it made us all realise that;

 

a) They are full of s***

b) They probably have been so for years - but we've never really noticed as much as now

You're not wrong - I've read many, many posts on here that have given me pause for thought or shown much more penetrating insight than anything I've read by a so called football journalist for more than 25 years.

 

Except yours, of course.

And OM's.

...and then tthere's Kaizers.

Let's not forget Ant while we're at it, or Wayne's. Or Hassony's, Sabre's Fyds, Cobs'...bugger.

[Hassony]

  fyds said:

You're not wrong - I've read many, many posts on here that have given me pause for thought or shown much more penetrating insight than anything I've read by a so called football journalist for more than 25 years.

 

Except yours, of course.

And OM's.

...and then tthere's Kaizers.

Let's not forget Ant while we're at it, or Wayne's. Or Hassony's, Sabre's Fyds, Cobs'...bugger.

 

thats very unfair

 

Bugger is a very good poster

[fyds]

  Hassony said:

thats very unfair

 

Bugger is a very good poster

Used to be - a bit up his own bum now though.

[owenthomas]

  Hassony said:

I think benayouns behind torres might work better than Beanyoun on the right

 

but no way we should mess about with where gerrard is playing at the moment considering how he has been playing of late

agree on both points to be fair.. but if Kuyt and Pennant aren't available for one reason or another i'd like to see Gerrard take one for the team in order to see that formation.. besides, when Gerrard's playing on the right it's not like he stays on the right..

[Maldini]

We played the same formation for his first year here and he was slaughtered for it week in week out.

[Guest Prongsy]

I've not read the rest of the comments in the thread, so someone might have already mentioned this...

 

It was the system that Rafa used in Valencia, I think it's been used over the years but Rafa can definitely be credited with re-pioneering it in Spain. Because the media are so thick, they said that it was Jose who first started using it with Chelsea, but it wasn't.

 

We even played it in Rafa's first season here. It's almost the perfect system, in terms of attacking/defending balance, but the problem with it is you need very specific individuals to make it work.

[fyds]

  Prongsy said:

I've not read the rest of the comments in the thread, so someone might have already mentioned this...

 

It was the system that Rafa used in Valencia, I think it's been used over the years but Rafa can definitely be credited with re-pioneering it in Spain. Because the media are so thick, they said that it was Jose who first started using it with Chelsea, but it wasn't.

 

We even played it in Rafa's first season here. It's almost the perfect system, in terms of attacking/defending balance, but the problem with it is you need very specific individuals to make it work.

And that's been our problem - although we have those individuals, keeping them all fit and in form at the same time has been problematic.

[Earl Hafler]

  Maldini said:

We played the same formation for his first year here and he was slaughtered for it week in week out.

 

It was more traditional 4-4-2 than this is. Gerrard played on the right or in the middle with Xabi / Didi / Igor. On a couple of occasions he played in the Dalglish role but he's running from deeper in the last few weeks.

[Skillz]

  Hassony said:

I think it was his idea to use it from the start, thats why Babel was bought, he was just waiting for Babel to settle in

 

 

This is scary. I agree totally again. Rafa bought Babel for this formation but only used it when Babel was ready to start.

[CaptainXabi]

  Skillz said:

This is scary. I agree totally again. Rafa bought Babel for this formation but only used it when Babel was ready to start.

Babel's going to make it. He's still doing lots of frustrating things, but I can see improvement in the weak pars of his game. When he faked the cut in and went left and crossed to Kuyt last night, it made me smile. Just needs to go left 1 time in 4 and fullbacks won't know what to do with themselves.