Rafa 'got his tactics wrong'...

[Craig_H]

Seen plenty saying this, about yesterday's game.

I'm sorry, but i think this is bollocks.

Howard made a superb save from Crouch 1st half, and Bellamy put the ball in the net after failing to get himself the right side of the defender. Small margins. If they'd gone the other way, we'd have been 2-0 up and coasting to victory. Feck all to do with tactics, it just didnt happen to be our day.

And that's without mentioning the Crouch chance 2nd half where he didnt connect properly, or Gerrard's free kick...there were several nearly moments which could've gone either way.

We completely controlled the game and were camped in their third for the vast majority. Sometimes the ball just doesnt bounce your way, no matter what tactics you employ. That was yesterday.

I'm interested in what these master tacticians would've done so differently.

[bazza76]

Are you OK?
I think you should try some yoga or something.

[Redlife]

I agree.

Our home record this year says that Rafa knows very well how to break down teams who play with 1 up and 10 in defence.


It won't work everytime and it didn't yesterday. This was their cup final and they defended like it was the end of the world. It doesn't mean Rafa got it wrong.


Expect a 4 hour long Neverton DVD of the famous 'Johnson Draw - 3rd Feb. 2007', as no doubt they're calling it, to be released next week, out the back of a car boot near you.

[tomasjj]

Expect a 4 hour long Neverton DVD of the famous 'Johnson Draw - 3rd Feb. 2007', as no doubt they're calling it, to be released next week, out the back of a car boot near you.

[lfcruleus]

Seen plenty saying this, about yesterday's game.

I'm sorry, but i think this is bollocks.

Howard made a superb save from Crouch 1st half, and Bellamy put the ball in the net after failing to get himself the right side of the defender. Small margins. If they'd gone the other way, we'd have been 2-0 up and coasting to victory. Feck all to do with tactics, it just didnt happen to be our day.

And that's without mentioning the Crouch chance 2nd half where he didnt connect properly, or Gerrard's free kick...there were several nearly moments which could've gone either way.

We completely controlled the game and were camped in their third for the vast majority. Sometimes the ball just doesnt bounce your way, no matter what tactics you employ. That was yesterday.

I'm interested in what these master tacticians would've done so differently.

Whilst i wouldn't class myself as a tactician, there were problems yesterday which Rafa did not address with his changes.

1: We had no left side. Kuyt drifted in all game and Riise was appalling.
Once it was evident that PC was not getting the best of Stubbs and Yobo, this should have been rectified with Gonzalez for Crouch.

This led to

2: Too much emphasis on the right hand side of the field. Gerard was out right too often helping Pennant and Finnan, It was too often the target of long rangey balls from Alonso, making it easy for Everton to predict what we were going to do. They then double teamed Pennant all afternoon so he couldnt get to the byline which resulted in the floating crosses from too deep that everyone moans about.

I think we started the game with the right tactics but Rafa did not change them when they simply were not working.

[Red_Al_77]

Seen plenty saying this, about yesterday's game.

I'm sorry, but i think this is bollocks.

Howard made a superb save from Crouch 1st half, and Bellamy put the ball in the net after failing to get himself the right side of the defender. Small margins. If they'd gone the other way, we'd have been 2-0 up and coasting to victory. Feck all to do with tactics, it just didnt happen to be our day.

And that's without mentioning the Crouch chance 2nd half where he didnt connect properly, or Gerrard's free kick...there were several nearly moments which could've gone either way.

We completely controlled the game and were camped in their third for the vast majority. Sometimes the ball just doesnt bounce your way, no matter what tactics you employ. That was yesterday.

I'm interested in what these master tacticians would've done so differently.

It's all a matter of opinions. If you don't like them then tough. Deal with it. No need for petty sarcasm.

If you think hoofing the ball constantly to Crouch was the right tactic then fine. If you think that playing ping pong was the right thing to do then fine. If you think taking Bellamy off, our most mobile player, and replacing him with someone who lacks any pace these days then fine. Some people do not. We play better when we keep the ball on the ground. We did not adapt.

[Red Chilli]

I didn't watch the game but I've seen highlights.

However, I still think it's pretty obvious he got his tactics wrong. If he'd got his tactics right, we have the better players (that's pretty indisputable), we would have won.
We didn't win and our performance was apparently poor.

[marcus50bucks]

It's all a matter of opinions. If you don't like them then tough. Deal with it. No need for petty sarcasm.

If you think hoofing the ball constantly to Crouch was the right tactic then fine. If you think that playing ping pong was the right thing to do then fine. If you think taking Bellamy off, our most mobile player, and replacing him with someone who lacks any pace these days then fine. Some people do not. We play better when we keep the ball on the ground. We did not adapt.

Can't disagree with that.

[Howard_lfc]

The plain and simple fact is we let the occasion get to us and we got dragged down to their level. It's a lesson we must learn.

[marcus50bucks]

I didn't watch the game but I've seen highlights.

However, I still think it's pretty obvious he got his tactics wrong. If he'd got his tactics right, we have the better players (that's pretty indisputable), we would have won.
We didn't win and our performance was apparently poor.

The problem is we're a long ball team and anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly deluding themselves. A bit of invention in our play would have helped, however we did what comes natural when Crouch is playing.

[Howard_lfc]

The problem is we're a long ball team and anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly deluding themselves. A bit of invention in our play would have helped, however we did what comes natural when Crouch is playing.

I don't think we are a long ball team - we do mix it up with players trying to get wide but the problem is our wide players are ****e. Having Crouch up front simply gives us an easy option when in possession.

But I see where you're coming from Marcus.

[alunevans]

Seen plenty saying this, about yesterday's game.

I'm sorry, but i think this is bollocks.

Howard made a superb save from Crouch 1st half, and Bellamy put the ball in the net after failing to get himself the right side of the defender. Small margins. If they'd gone the other way, we'd have been 2-0 up and coasting to victory. Feck all to do with tactics, it just didnt happen to be our day.

And that's without mentioning the Crouch chance 2nd half where he didnt connect properly, or Gerrard's free kick...there were several nearly moments which could've gone either way.

We completely controlled the game and were camped in their third for the vast majority. Sometimes the ball just doesnt bounce your way, no matter what tactics you employ. That was yesterday.

I'm interested in what these master tacticians would've done so differently.

I'm not sure what you mean by tactics. But the thing I'd have done differently is got the team to use the ball rather than just launching it. I felt our strategy was largely about hoping that the ball bounces our way.

We went long and they were more than equal to it. There were two brief spells in the second half when we shifted the ball and they couldn't cope with it.

We had all the posession but did nothing with it because our main tactic was the long ball. It didn't work, didn't much look like working other than if the ball bounced our way, and was very very predictable.

[Red_Al_77]

It always comes down to our wide players. How long have we been harping on about getting decent wide players? Players that whip crosses in instead of those that arc them in as if they are playing with a sand wedge. Surely there must be a couple of real wingers we can buy.

[Red_Al_77]

Best move of the match was Bellamy's give and go. Exploited his pace. Nearly came off. Hmmmm so we saw that but we kept playing long to Crouch and then took off Bellamy. Great.

[alunevans]

It always comes down to our wide players. How long have we been harping on about getting decent wide players? Players that whip crosses in instead of those that arc them in as if they are playing with a sand wedge. Surely there must be a couple of real wingers we can buy.

Two footed ones would be nice too. JP had several opportunities to dig a left foot cross in but always has to go back to his right foot because he doesn't appear to have a left.