Post match knee 'jerks' in here please.

[Joe King]

Didn't see the match. It's painful reading this lot...

If you like to go to sleep and instead of using a nightcap, use this match on MOTD

[The Glove]

Didn't see the match. It's painful reading this lot...

First half was ****. Second half was a vast improvement but Kuyt was very wasteful. There are positives as well as negatives, depends which side of the fence you are on really.

[rage]

Awful match, for those of us that do not wear rose tinted glasses as much as it pains us we were proven right. How Crouch did not start after impressing against arsenal is shocking. Rafa can do wrong, plenty wrong infact.

[Howard_lfc]

You sensible, young and handsome* man.


and his auntie dont forget !!













*according to Jay's mum.

[dww]

Rafa always talks about mentality. Well our attacking mentality is very poor. Our full backs very rarely break out of defense and get beyond the the winger. Watch the Mancs and Arsenal today, every time the full back would get beyond the wide midfielder which pulls players over from the centre which creates more space in the middle.

Rafa needs to take a back step and actually see whats happening. He is wanting to prove a point by playing Kuyt and Momo instead of looking at the overall picture.
Rafa should not be sacked BTW, anyway who the hell would we get? No-one stands out in world football at the minute. (mourhino is a no no)

I think you are right about that attacking mentality. None of the attacking quartet other than Gerrard seem willing to chance their arm by having a shot or taking a man on.

However I think in some ways that today had some pluses for us. For the first time in a long while I think we did create a platform from which we could have attacked. The central midfield of Mascher, Momo and Gerrad played well and did their job well IMO.

I think that there is very little case for continuing for Kuyt up front even if like today he fits the game play perfectly. We need to have players in the attack who have confidence and a willingness to drive at the opposition goal and adopt goalscoring positions. When Crouch came on he highlighted what we had been missing. Unlike many others I think there is potentially a role for Kuyt in our squad but the way he is playing at the minute he is trying hard to make me change my mind. However I think part of the problem is the collective lack of confidence in attack.

I think if we give Crouch a chance the performance and pattern of play today hints that we are playing our way back into form. I think it was a little bit of direction in attack away from a good crushing performance.

[El Jefecito]

I think you are right about that attacking mentality. None of the attacking quartet other than Gerrard seem willing to chance their arm by having a shot or taking a man on.

However I think in some ways that today had some pluses for us. For the first time in a long while I think we did create a platform from which we could have attacked. The central midfield of Mascher, Momo and Gerrad played well and did their job well IMO.

I think that there is very little case for continuing for Kuyt up front even if like today he fits the game play perfectly. We need to have players in the attack who have confidence and a willingness to drive at the opposition goal and adopt goalscoring positions. When Crouch came on he highlighted what we had been missing. Unlike many others I think there is potentially a role for Kuyt in our squad but the way he is playing at the minute he is trying hard to make me change my mind. However I think part of the problem is the collective lack of confidence in attack.

I think if we give Crouch a chance the performance and pattern of play today hints that we are playing our way back into form. I think it was a little bit of direction in attack away from a good crushing performance.

When Crouch came on we went 442, I think that was a much the reason for the improvement as the player himself. SG was playing in this ridiculous holding role and we could hold their midfield w/2 players not the 3 we were using.

[dww]

When Crouch came on we went 442, I think that was a much the reason for the improvement as the player himself. SG was playing in this ridiculous holding role and we could hold their midfield w/2 players not the 3 we were using.

I didn't see Gerrard doing a holding role to be honest. In recent matches pundits have often commented that he should be arriving later to have maximum effect and I think that he is trying to do that (with mixed results IMO). For me a major problem is that the wide players never take a chance to support the striker when they don't have the ball - a plus was seeing Kewell do this once when he came on. Which gives me hope that the normal state of affairs is just poor individual judgement of the timing rather than a directive from Rafa.

I can see what you are saying about Crouch but today as against Arsenal he looks like the only player confident and willing to strike the ball at goal on a regular basis.

[El Jefecito]

I didn't see Gerrard doing a holding role to be honest. In recent matches pundits have often commented that he should be arriving later to have maximum effect and I think that he is trying to do that (with mixed results IMO). For me a major problem is that the wide players never take a chance to support the striker when they don't have the ball - a plus was seeing Kewell do this once when he came on. Which gives me hope that the normal state of affairs is just poor individual judgement of the timing rather than a directive from Rafa.

I can see what you are saying about Crouch but today as against Arsenal he looks like the only player confident and willing to strike the ball at goal on a regular basis.

When I said holding role I meant as the player holding up the ball. Not as in "holding midfieder". SG with his back to goals is a joke. In the firs half he was a joke.

[Skillz]

I think when people accuse Rafa of paying too much respect to teams they are right in some sense but it needs to be put in perspective. This methodology has been very successfull for Rafa and I believe it is the way to go long term. Rafa wants his squad to be able to play a system where they all know the role in the team regardless of their position on a given day.

Yesterday we payed Blackburn a lot of respect, too much in hindsight perhaps but they were on a 7 game winning streak at home and we have key players out as well as being a team lacking confidence due to a injuries and players out of form. Rafa's plan very nearly worked as we should have won the game in the end if not for Dirks very poor display.

My only real criticism of Rafa was not starting Crouch in place of Dirk (who needs a rest). I admire Dirks workrate as we all do but he was a liability yesterday and his 1st touch was a shambles, its just not happening for him at the moment.

I do however believe in Rafa and when we have Alonso, Agger, Torres, Kewell, Arbeloa and Aurelio back in the side we will start putting in the type of displays we want.

As for Rafa's style of play it has been proven against the very best of teams in Europe. He is building a team from the back and I know we want to start seeing results up front but I am sure this will come in time.

Having said all that I understand why some are frustrated after that performance. IMO we did play to Rafa's game plan but a lack of confidence and a poor performance from our key forward made it look a lot worse.

A draw at Blackburn is not a bad result and we are not out of it yet, not by a long shot.

EDIT: apologies for the positivity and lack of knee jerking. I think I am in the wrong thread.

[dww]

When I said holding role I meant as the player holding up the ball. Not as in "holding midfieder". SG with his back to goals is a joke. In the firs half he was a joke.

Ah. Fair enough.

[Joe Le Toff]

I think when people accuse Rafa of paying too much respect to teams they are right in some sense but it needs to be put in perspective. This methodology has been very successfull for Rafa and I believe it is the way to go long term. Rafa wants his squad to be able to play a system where they all know the role in the team regardless of their position on a given day.

Yesterday we payed Blackburn a lot of respect, too much in hindsight perhaps but they were on a 7 game winning streak at home and we have key players out as well as being a team lacking confidence due to a injuries and players out of form. Rafa's plan very nearly worked as we should have won the game in the end if not for Dirks very poor display.

My only real criticism of Rafa was not starting Crouch in place of Dirk (who needs a rest). I admire Dirks workrate as we all do but he was a liability yesterday and his 1st touch was a shambles, its just not happening for him at the moment.

I do however believe in Rafa and when we have Alonso, Agger, Torres, Kewell, Arbeloa and Aurelio back in the side we will start putting in the type of displays we want.

As for Rafa's style of play it has been proven against the very best of teams in Europe. He is building a team from the back and I know we want to start seeing results up front but I am sure this will come in time.

Having said all that I understand why some are frustrated after that performance. IMO we did play to Rafa's game plan but a lack of confidence and a poor performance from our key forward made it look a lot worse.

A draw at Blackburn is not a bad result and we are not out of it yet, not by a long shot.

EDIT: apologies for the positivity and lack of knee jerking. I think I am in the wrong thread.

Rafas style of play works when we are going out to smother the opposition and stop them from playing i.e Barcelona in the Nou Camp or to some extent Arsenal last week.
It does NOT work when we are playing bread and butter league games like yesterday in which the home side will play like the away side and sit back for the draw, which in the latter stages i believe Blackburn done to some extent.
We have to show more in the final third, its so poor its unwatchable at times. We have the players in Kewell. Gerrard, Babel, Yossi to make us an attacking and potent force. Rafa has to take the shackles off these players and let them go out and express themselves, and understand that players with flair can still do a job for the team.

[Skillz]

Rafas style of play works when we are going out to smother the opposition and stop them from playing i.e Barcelona in the Nou Camp or to some extent Arsenal last week.
It does NOT work when we are playing bread and butter league games like yesterday in which the home side will play like the away side and sit back for the draw, which in the latter stages i believe Blackburn done to some extent.
We have to show more in the final third, its so poor its unwatchable at times. We have the players in Kewell. Gerrard, Babel, Yossi to make us an attacking and potent force. Rafa has to take the shackles off these players and let them go out and express themselves, and understand that players with flair can still do a job for the team.

I believe we will see that from now on. I think we will right in it by Christmas, especially if we get some sort of result against the scum. Just need our best players back IMO.

[Roboklopp]

We were a different team with Crouch and Kewell as Subs.Before hand we were ****e.If crouch doesnt start on Tuesday were fecked.

I dont think it is any coincidence that when Crouch started regularly in the league we picked up our highest point tally ever, player far better footbal than we are now & finished 1 point behind 2nd place.