After last night I've tried to put together what has been going wrong with us over the last few games.
Ok so last night was our first defeat this season but 4 out of our last 5 have been poor peformances and in stark contrast to the way we started the season.
What's gone wrong is it rotation, is it Paco leaving, is it quality of some players is it the injuries or is there a power struggle between Stevie and Rafa over the England affair.
Personally I don't know for definite but I feel it's a combination of all of the above.
I think Rafa had put his foot down regarding Stevie playing for England but Stevie ignored it hence he was dropped against Portsmouth.
I also feel Stevie thinks Torres should start every game and while agreeing mostly with the rotation policies he feels like most that a core of players should start nearly every game.
I also feel based on comments from various players Alonso in particular that Pako is a big loss and the liasion between Rafa and his players is gone and communication seems to be lacking.
The injuries to Alonso and Agger have affected us more than they should but again I wonder is that because of the other factors above although Sami a good and wonderful defender/servant to the club is not the CB he once was.
Then there is the quality of some players that on a night like last night can be called into question Momo was shocking and I wonder is he good enough to play for us these doubts came up in my mind last year and I thought this year he started well but seems to have lost his way again(maybe the Pako affect here)
Then there is Crouchy whom all pre-season was poor and has not got going at all this season, granted he hasn't been given as much as other players but he has supposedly being stirring it also I do think he is to slow and limited and that maybe this will go against him.
The Crow and Yossi need time so I will reserve judgement there but I think Momo and Crouch need to up their games big style to remain at the club.
As for rotation it has in the main stood us well but I would like to see a little more continuity until we get back to the desire and style of play we had for the first 6 games.
Overall I have a lot of faith in Rafa and we have some incredible players we need to get past this malaise and if we can return to our form of Aug then we can achieve quite a lot this year.
Come on Red men lets see some heart again.
Ok so last night was our first defeat this season but 4 out of our last 5 have been poor peformances and in stark contrast to the way we started the season.
What's gone wrong is it rotation, is it Paco leaving, is it quality of some players is it the injuries or is there a power struggle between Stevie and Rafa over the England affair.
Personally I don't know for definite but I feel it's a combination of all of the above.
I think Rafa had put his foot down regarding Stevie playing for England but Stevie ignored it hence he was dropped against Portsmouth.
I also feel Stevie thinks Torres should start every game and while agreeing mostly with the rotation policies he feels like most that a core of players should start nearly every game.
I also feel based on comments from various players Alonso in particular that Pako is a big loss and the liasion between Rafa and his players is gone and communication seems to be lacking.
The injuries to Alonso and Agger have affected us more than they should but again I wonder is that because of the other factors above although Sami a good and wonderful defender/servant to the club is not the CB he once was.
Then there is the quality of some players that on a night like last night can be called into question Momo was shocking and I wonder is he good enough to play for us these doubts came up in my mind last year and I thought this year he started well but seems to have lost his way again(maybe the Pako affect here)
Then there is Crouchy whom all pre-season was poor and has not got going at all this season, granted he hasn't been given as much as other players but he has supposedly being stirring it also I do think he is to slow and limited and that maybe this will go against him.
The Crow and Yossi need time so I will reserve judgement there but I think Momo and Crouch need to up their games big style to remain at the club.
As for rotation it has in the main stood us well but I would like to see a little more continuity until we get back to the desire and style of play we had for the first 6 games.
Overall I have a lot of faith in Rafa and we have some incredible players we need to get past this malaise and if we can return to our form of Aug then we can achieve quite a lot this year.
Come on Red men lets see some heart again.
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