Gillett and Rafa Benitez to meet in France(telegraph)

[Alpha]

A win-win situation eh?

We got beat.

I don't care what anyone says, Rafa ****ed up royally yesterday. Team selection, formation and substitutions were all ****e.

And I'm sorry but the attempt above at trying to reach an explanation is, well, a reach.

Let’s say you're right though, if he did pick a weakened side on the purpose of showing the owners that our so called squad isn't all that great, then he should be sacked.

To me that’s unprofessional behaviour, negligence even. But I don’t believe this is the case.

I tend to think that a misplaced hubris came over him and he underestimated Reading, and thought he could get away with playing the likes of Sissoko and Voronin, and Crouch wide left.

Which leads me to my next question; where are Rafa's priorities? Can anyone honestly believe that by taking off Gerrard and Torres he was prepared to fight back in yesterday’s game?

It couldn't have come at a worse time for us, a win yesterday would've really set us up for Tuesday. So why not play your best team yesterday, win, and keep the good run going into Tuesday?

Doesn’t that make sense? I need someone to explain it to me, because I just don't understand.

Still a win against Marseille and the inbreds and yesterday will be forgotten.

No no no.

You missed my point totally. I was not trying to justify Rafa's selection. We lost yesterday and he got it wrong. But this thread isn't about yesterday's result.

Also, I would never accuse Benitez of starting with a weakened side just to make a point.

He must believe Hobbs is ready or he wouldn't have played him. That is obvious.

I was casually suggesting that if he was waiting for an opportunity to start Hobbs, why not do it the weekend before his meeting with the owners? That way, if anything did go wrong, he could, at least, use it to support his view that we need to strengthen in defence. Call it a win-win or call it hedging his bets.

This isn't my view, by the way. This is just a suggestion and yes, I am reaching. For all I know, Hobbs may have started because Hyypia had the flu.

I did say I was thinking out loud...

[Morph]

No no no.

You missed my point totally. I was not trying to justify Rafa's selection. We lost yesterday and he got it wrong. But this thread isn't about yesterday's result.

Also, I would never accuse Benitez of starting with a weakened side just to make a point.

He must believe Hobbs is ready or he wouldn't have played him. That is obvious.

I was casually suggesting that if he was waiting for an opportunity to start Hobbs, why not do it the weekend before his meeting with the owners? That way, if anything did go wrong, he could, at least, use it to support his view that we need to strengthen in defence. Call it a win-win or call it hedging his bets.

This isn't my view, by the way. This is just a suggestion and yes, I am reaching. For all I know, Hobbs may have started because Hyypia had the flu.

I did say I was thinking out loud...

The Hobbs point is a fair one, like you we don't know how rafa's mind works, but if he needs to prove he needs defensive reinforcements, then yesterday might have done the trick

[Craig_H]

1) He couldn't pick the best team yesterday with the Marseille and Man U games next week. If he would have played his best team with players like Kewell and Hyypia then both of them would either need to sit out the Marseille game or the Man U game.

If you can't understand a basic thing like that then I don't know what can make you understand basic things.

2) We played with Sissoko, Voronin, Hobbs and Riise. Four players that isn't part of our starting XI in the important games, so it was very much a "b-team".

You're talking like it's a set in stone given fact that they couldnt possibly take part in all three. And i didnt say he should've picked his 'best team' anyway.

You seem to have the patent on failing to understand simple things here.