Perhaps the most deflating aspect of sunday's match was the re-occurance of their respective injuries.
For 2 players to suffer the very same injuries they have been out with prior to the match is very poor management.
Torres was quite clearly nowhere fit whilst Alonso's injury obviously wasn't fully healed either.
But who, if anyone is to blame for this. Is it the medical staff, the players themselves or Rafa.
I think in Torres' case, the player must take most of the blame. He must have known he was nowhere fit. If the decision to play was left to the player then Torres has done both himself and LFC no favours. Even if encouraged to play by Rafa he should have said that if he did play he would not be able to himself or the team justice.
Alonso is a harder one to call. Presumably the medical staff must have felt he would be ok, so to the player as he was even included for the Besiktas match.
However, the real reason we had to play both Alonso & Torres is that the game was so important for us. I think Rafa knew a defeat would virtually rule us out of the title race for another season. I think he decided to take a risk, in playing key players, knowing they weren't fit but hoped we'd get away with it.
However, we didn't, and whilst the draw we achieved kept us in the title hunt, will the price of the injuries mean our challenge will falter elsewhere. Without torres in particular, we don't look like scoring enough goals to keep us in touch with Arsenal & Utd.
For 2 players to suffer the very same injuries they have been out with prior to the match is very poor management.
Torres was quite clearly nowhere fit whilst Alonso's injury obviously wasn't fully healed either.
But who, if anyone is to blame for this. Is it the medical staff, the players themselves or Rafa.
I think in Torres' case, the player must take most of the blame. He must have known he was nowhere fit. If the decision to play was left to the player then Torres has done both himself and LFC no favours. Even if encouraged to play by Rafa he should have said that if he did play he would not be able to himself or the team justice.
Alonso is a harder one to call. Presumably the medical staff must have felt he would be ok, so to the player as he was even included for the Besiktas match.
However, the real reason we had to play both Alonso & Torres is that the game was so important for us. I think Rafa knew a defeat would virtually rule us out of the title race for another season. I think he decided to take a risk, in playing key players, knowing they weren't fit but hoped we'd get away with it.
However, we didn't, and whilst the draw we achieved kept us in the title hunt, will the price of the injuries mean our challenge will falter elsewhere. Without torres in particular, we don't look like scoring enough goals to keep us in touch with Arsenal & Utd.
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