Lots of negative stuff about Rafa

[einar]

1. All I want us to do is pass and move, score goals and win the league - six will follow.

2. Valencia and Liverpool are not comparable in any way.
3. Rafa got us 5 but he's alienated and lost people he has worked with for many years,
4.gets an increasing amount of stick from supporters, including those who are fortunate to be match-goers,
5. and seems to have pissed off many in the squad.

6. His rotation policy doesn't seem to be working - in many ways -
7. and his treatment of certain players, eg Crouchy borders on...on...on... well, stupidity etc, at times.

8. A team is a body of players that play together regularly - understand one another and play for one another - that's basic stuff. The fact that he doesn't seem to consider this important is a part of Rafa's psyche that I can't get to grips with

9. I don't know what I think, tbh, but I'm not calling for Rafa's head, but somethings got to improve...and it's the manager...maybe...

1. IMO Rafa is trying to get the team to play a more attractive game, but they are not responding all that well yet. Why that is I dont know but I am not willing to put all the blame on Rafa cos we know what he can do and how well teams can play under him.

2. They are both managed be Rafa. I think it is safe to say that we saw his preferred style of play there.

3. They did not agree. There was only ever gonna be one outcome. The manager has to be the boss.

4. Should not be taken into account when a decision is made on whether or not to sack him.

5. That happens at all clubs and is a normal part of the game. Usually the unhappy players leave before they start having a negative effect. Plus I am not sure that there are many unhappy player. Very likely a few, but not many.

6. There are many thing about his rotation policy that can be criticized. But the fact remains, he has won 5 big cups in 6 years using that very policy. And at this moment in time it is to early to use his rotation policy as a reason to sack him.

7. The way I see this Crouch thing is this. Rafa is trying to change the way the team plays, to more pass and move. And Crouch is our kick and run striker. Remember when Rafa bought him he talked endlessly about Crouch giving us options. That option was the long ball for him to head down. Rafa wants to use that far less now so he needs a different type of striker. Mainly one with more pace then Crouch.

8. See nr. 6

9. I agree with you. The manager needs to improve. The good news is that he admits that and history tells us that he will.

[kurtangle01]

Oh whatever then...

The usual suspect have stuck the knife in and that's to be expected.

Others have surprisingly jumped on the bandwagon and so be it.

I'll feck off and leave you all to the head patting and high fives...

Cheerio.

[Red Chilli]

Sack Rafa, for having fun in a way that excludes his employer

[bigfooty]

I'm one of Rafa's biggest doubters when it comes to the league but barring some kind of implosion he should be given until the end of this season for sure. Where we finish will determine whether or not he should get another bite of the cherry, though if we don't really up our level in the next 2 months it will be interesting to see how much backing he gets in January.

[tomasjj]

Blackburn are now a decent team.
They are unbeaten in many league matches. (So are we, but quite a few have forgotten that...)
We almost got the win playing at their ground.
Not perfect, but not utter ****e either.

[mick the click]

Do you mean ScouserTommy or has Shaggy pissed off someone else?

Bollocks, I did indeed... thank you...last low groan of someone who has clearly drunk too much after having been to too many firework displays, dealt will all the halloween crap, and too many other kiddy frolics in the last week or so to be sane.

Night all...

If I need to apologise to desertscouser - I do. If I don't, I won't.

[tomasjj]

Oh whatever then...

The usual suspect have stuck the knife in and that's to be expected.

Others have surprisingly jumped on the bandwagon and so be it.

I'll feck off and leave you all to the head patting and high fives...

Cheerio.

[mick the click]

1. IMO Rafa is trying to get the team to play a more attractive game, but they are not responding all that well yet. Why that is I dont know but I am not willing to put all the blame on Rafa cos we know what he can do and how well teams can play under him.

2. They are both managed be Rafa. I think it is safe to say that we saw his preferred style of play there.

3. They did not agree. There was only ever gonna be one outcome. The manager has to be the boss.

4. Should not be taken into account when a decision is made on whether or not to sack him.

5. That happens at all clubs and is a normal part of the game. Usually the unhappy players leave before they start having a negative effect. Plus I am not sure that there are many unhappy player. Very likely a few, but not many.

6. There are many thing about his rotation policy that can be criticized. But the fact remains, he has won 5 big cups in 6 years using that very policy. And at this moment in time it is to early to use his rotation policy as a reason to sack him.

7. The way I see this Crouch thing is this. Rafa is trying to change the way the team plays, to more pass and move. And Crouch is our kick and run striker. Remember when Rafa bought him he talked endlessly about Crouch giving us options. That option was the long ball for him to head down. Rafa wants to use that far less now so he needs a different type of striker. Mainly one with more pace then Crouch.

8. See nr. 6

9. I agree with you. The manager needs to improve. The good news is that he admits that and history tells us that he will.

ok - thanks for the response Don't necessarily agree with all of it, but that's fine. I wouldn't sack him...I just find that I don't understand a growing number of his decisions. Rafa knows more than I do about football...so let's see

[Red Chilli]

Sacking Rafa will put our ambitions of winning the title back 2 years minimum I reckon.

Mascherano will probably go if we sacked Rafa now.
How long would Alonso and Pepe stay?
What about Torres?

Rafa needs to change, maybe bringing in a number 2 with some new ideas would help?
We need to change our tactics, 2 defensive midfielders and 4 at the back effectively means you are playing with 4 attacking players.
Now when Alonso is one of the 6 you can get away with it because of his range of passing, but it will always mean a number of long balls.

I'd like to see defenders with pace who don't need 2 defensive midfielders, then I'd like to see wide players who pose a constant threat and pull defenders out of position, then I'd like to see Torres with a decent partner.

Football is a simple game, complicated by fools.

At the moment, Rafa is complicating it too much.

[FT9]

Rafa Out?

I'm going to bite the bullet.

I love Rafa for winning no.5.

I love him for the F.A Cup.

I love him for the beard.

But.....we are playing ****e football and there is no way we can win the league while playing like that that.

Are we going to win with Rafa?

ballbag :whatever:

[einar]

Sacking Rafa will put our ambitions of winning the title back 2 years minimum I reckon.

Mascherano will probably go if we sacked Rafa now.
How long would Alonso and Pepe stay?
What about Torres?

Rafa needs to change, maybe bringing in a number 2 with some new ideas would help?
We need to change our tactics, 2 defensive midfielders and 4 at the back effectively means you are playing with 4 attacking players.
Now when Alonso is one of the 6 you can get away with it because of his range of passing, but it will always mean a number of long balls.

I'd like to see defenders with pace who don't need 2 defensive midfielders, then I'd like to see wide players who pose a constant threat and pull defenders out of position, then I'd like to see Torres with a decent partner.

Football is a simple game, complicated by fools.

At the moment, Rafa is complicating it too much.

All teams sometimes play with 2 defensive midfielders. That should not have an effect on how many long balls we play. Two reasons.

1. One of them should still be involved in the attacking play. The only difference is he is not allowed to make runs into the box but he should be within shooting range and in a good position to put in some through balls.

2. Having 2 defensive midfielders should always allow the fullbacks to overlap at will and therefor more then make up for the fact that one of the central midfielders does not forward runs.

I dont think Rafa is complicating the game. I think he is changing how we play and that takes time to gel with the players.

[bogsdollocks]

Just back from the match. Absolutely bladdered afert going home via blackpool?! (good idea at the time) but still able to post after reading a few pages of this ****e. Stop all your ****ing whining you bunch of *****. No Agger, no Alonso, no Torres - thats a back bone of any side. Rafa can only put out a side that he has at his disposal. Lets all get a grip. I also had the unpleasant experience of listening to 606 on the way back and some of those so called Liverpool fans (one **** who owned a restuarant in town - love to meet that ****) saying he's going to protest outside anfield and ask for a season ticket refund. I wanna be there when he does. Anyway I've had me rant and i'm off now to drink some more. REMEMBER - Still unbeaten. YNWA - goodnight.

[Shaggy]

Sacking Rafa will put our ambitions of winning the title back 2 years minimum I reckon.

Mascherano will probably go if we sacked Rafa now.
How long would Alonso and Pepe stay?
What about Torres?

Rafa needs to change, maybe bringing in a number 2 with some new ideas would help?
We need to change our tactics, 2 defensive midfielders and 4 at the back effectively means you are playing with 4 attacking players.
Now when Alonso is one of the 6 you can get away with it because of his range of passing, but it will always mean a number of long balls.

I'd like to see defenders with pace who don't need 2 defensive midfielders, then I'd like to see wide players who pose a constant threat and pull defenders out of position, then I'd like to see Torres with a decent partner.

Football is a simple game, complicated by fools.

At the moment, Rafa is complicating it too much.

He is, but Rafa's no fool. This is what's so baffling.

[bigfooty]

7. The way I see this Crouch thing is this. Rafa is trying to change the way the team plays, to more pass and move. And Crouch is our kick and run striker. Remember when Rafa bought him he talked endlessly about Crouch giving us options. That option was the long ball for him to head down. Rafa wants to use that far less now so he needs a different type of striker. Mainly one with more pace then Crouch.

Crouch is far more versatile than that though. Yes he can be played direct but he actually is much more effective when you get the ball into wide areas and have people playing off him, feeding off his knock-downs or giving him crosses he can get on the end of. I don't have the skill to put together a compilation video but if I was to go through his goals & assists last season you'd find very few come from kicking the ball from deep. Indeed, if we revert to spanking the ball from the Sami / Carra position to Crouch on the edge of the opposition box then he, and we, will struggle against decent, good sized defences because it's far too predictable and defenders over 6ft can do enough to nullify him.

The Pompy game this season was a case in point where Rafa had the smart-arse idea of putting Crouch on Johnson and sending the ball 60 yards to that corner of the pitch. It worked once or twice but after that Pompy got to grips yet we persisted in trying to do it, not even bothering to try and attack in other ways.

Crouch has shown he can play on his own to devastating effect (Arsenal) but that he can also link up well with others, such as his partnership with Kuyt last season. The thing is when your two supposed leading strikers start only 1 in 4 matches together it's not surprising they cannot make more of a name for themselves. I mean it'll be interesting to see of Torres starts more than 15 games this season with any other striker in a two-man attack. I think in the league already he's probably started 2 or 3 games at most with any other individual and we're almost a third of the way through. Yes he's had injuries and been "rotated" but that's a shocking way to treat a 23M investment, just as it was a shocking way to treat Crouch last season as he got 15 starts with Kuyt and 6 with Bellamy.

[reddragon]

WERE NOT EVEN HALF WAY THROUGH THE SEASON

sense from the senseless - again