Do you still have faith?

[Resu]

Don't agree with that at all, fredo.

His blind spots appear to me to be:

1. He buys 'versatile' players who can give a number of 'options' as far as team set-up is concerned. Torres and Alonso excepted. He asks these players to then carry out instructions which in some cases appear to be alien to them.

2. He changes formation/players too much or at wrong times.

3. He doesn't appear to create a 'loving' atmosphere with the players - they are pawns in his game of chess.

4. He's overly tactically minded. The PL is not chess, it's draughts.

Number 4 leads to the others so, imo, the last item listed above is the actual resaon he will not win us the PL.

This is what I`m thinking as well.
It looks like the pressure are really starting to get to Rafa.
After Athens he`s pulled some strange moves:
- Putting all eggs in the Heinze bag. If Parry now is in charge of transfers, could this failure be a reason?
- The Paco thing. This probably isn`t Rafas fault alone, but they`d been friends for a long time and then suddenly....There are more than one report saying that Rafa is getting difficult to deal with.
- The outburst against the new owners. This was not very Rafa-like at all. Where are the person that just had a short answer and a smile when asked a difficult question?
If Rafa is happy with the money/power he gets at the club he`ll probably stay as long as he keeps us in the CL, but he won`t win the PL.
I dearly hope that I`m wrong in all of this, and that it will all come back to haunt me, but the signs are getting clearer every month.

[Red_Al_77]

In Europe definitely. In the PL no. I see no vast improvement year on year. The same issues and deficiencies still exist. We are still bogged down by tactics. We still are challenging and we are still a long way from it. People say it's the player's fault. Year on year? With differing squads?

[chrispy]

i'm unsure to be honest. My heart says yes he's still the man for us and i'd be gutted if he went. however, my head is slowly beginning to say no.

The brutal truth is we are miles off the pace and hand on heart i'm not sure Rafa knows how to put our problems right. He makes so many decisions that for the life of me I can't understand. For my money he's been completely undermined by G&H as it seems to me they don't want him, not for on the pitch reasons, but a divided club off the pitch will eventually crack on the pitch.

If Rafa has any chance of survival we must have an exceptional 2nd part of the season and by that I mean winning either the FA Cup or CL and storming through to at least 3rd in the league with it looking likely that a real title challenge can emerge next season.

Thanks Sir Bob. I've been thinking of how to explain my choice of unsure and you've done it for me

I love Rafa to bits and don't think there's anyone better for the job but his tactics baffle me beyond belief.

[AFII]

This is what I`m thinking as well.
It looks like the pressure are really starting to get to Rafa.
After Athens he`s pulled some strange moves:
- Putting all eggs in the Heinze bag. If Parry now is in charge of transfers, could this failure be a reason?
- The Paco thing. This probably isn`t Rafas fault alone, but they`d been friends for a long time and then suddenly....There are more than one report saying that Rafa is getting difficult to deal with.
- The outburst against the new owners. This was not very Rafa-like at all. Where are the person that just had a short answer and a smile when asked a difficult question?
If Rafa is happy with the money/power he gets at the club he`ll probably stay as long as he keeps us in the CL, but he won`t win the PL.
I dearly hope that I`m wrong in all of this, and that it will all come back to haunt me, but the signs are getting clearer every month.

He was called Diego by the Argentinian players at Valencia just because of this reason. Pako was the man at Valencia and here that was the players man. Rafa is the boss and always will be, he won't change.

[Fan65]

No he hasn't. In both last night and against City - the opposition manager got what they played for; we never. So who won the game, tactically?
Rafa was outdone last night by Steve Bruce - along with his big fat head. Again.

I concede the visiting managers got the draws they wanted but Rafa's tactics worked up to the point that many goalscoring chances were created against negative defending, unfortunately they were not converted into goals. The players ability to convert those goal scoring chances do not come under tactics. Call it bad luck, poor markmanship or whatever but the tactics worked as on another day it would not have been a surprise to win both games by 3 clear goals.

I KNOW IT DIDN'T HAPPEN !!!! But it could have and I want to remain positive.

[slimbimjim]

Slur Alex can create a PL winning team including Richardson, Brown and Fletcher so why can't Rafa carve a playing mentality no matter who plays?

That is our downfall to be honest.

[AFII]

Man U played 4-5-1 at home against Birmingham, they won 1-0 but they still played 4-5-1, Tevez alone upfront.

It's the quality of the players that counts and how they perform on the pitch. The big buck players bail out Man U and Chelsea time after time after time, why?

The answer is that they have the quality to do it and that is why they are so expensive.

We have two players that can bail us out, Torres and Gerrard. Man U and Chelsea have a lot more.

Wenger have been allowed to build his team, the board gave him time to do it even that it meant that they couldn't challenge for a couple of seasons.

Rafa need to be backed to buy his first choice targets. That way we will get more players that can bail us out in off days like yesterday.

[Resu]

He was called Diego by the Argentinian players at Valencia just because of this reason. Pako was the man at Valencia and here that was the players man. Rafa is the boss and always will be, he won't change.

I wasn`t only talking about professionally. There has been reports (how accurate I don`t know) that Rafa "the person" is changing.
We all change, it`s part of getting older and responding to the world around us. Rafa has been under a lot pressure lately, and this will have to leave a mark on him.
Rafa is not the kind of guy that forgets about his job when he leaves the office. He always thinks about football and how to make the club better. Since he likes to have a hand in everything it must get pretty stressfull. Taking the back-seat in some situations help you to get a better picture of whats going on, and might help you focus on the right things.

[AFII]

I wasn`t only talking about professionally. There has been reports (how accurate I don`t know) that Rafa "the person" is changing.
We all change, it`s part of getting older and responding to the world around us. Rafa has been under a lot pressure lately, and this will have to leave a mark on him.
Rafa is not the kind of guy that forgets about his job when he leaves the office. He always thinks about football and how to make the club better. Since he likes to have a hand in everything it must get pretty stressfull. Taking the back-seat in some situations help you to get a better picture of whats going on, and might help you focus on the right things.

Rafa likes as you point out to have a hand in everything, why not let him continue to do that?

It was when G&H didn't allow him to do that that things got worse. Rafa knows what he is doing, G&H don't.

[carlton]

AF-Rafa cant go unchecked. he has a lot of power now and good luck to him but its dangerous having a Manager with too much power. Someone must be able to say no to him and it appears that may have happened with respect to transfer dealings but there doesnt appear to be anyone to challenge his on pitch decisions. He should have a number 2 and also is Alex Miller untouchable? Im sure he does a good job but maybe its time for a change or at least a review? Someone like Gary Mac as alot of people have been saying would be a good move but maybe even a number 2 who has been associated with premiership success? The title is gone but in order for the league not to be a write off we need to finish in single figures behind the winner. That would indicted genuine improvement.

[bazza76]

I still have faith, The game is about narrow margins, it is funny how one fortunate goal can change alot of peoples views.

[Jazzmaster]

You pretty much summed up my opinion. Rafa ****ed it up again. There's no excuse for the sort of **** he's pulled out of God knows where against the likes of Reading and Wigan.

We're playing ****ing Wigan at Anfield, and he goes and plays a single striker...what the ****? I don't care who the opposition is, unless you've got the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi on the wings, playing one striker is a defensive tactic. That's what you do when your main objective is to stop the opponent, and maybe nick a 1-0 win. It's not what you do at home against ****ing Wigan!

It makes no ****ing sense to me why Rafa fielded that team, and why he didn't make changes earlier. Anyone with eyes could see that it wasn't working...sure, we had tons of possession but no end product, and Pennant, for one, was doing absolutely nothing. We made a hero out of Titus ****ing Bramble of all people.

We've got a considerably better team than the one that finished with 82 points two seasons ago. Yet, here we are, locked in heated battle with the likes of Man City, Portsmouth, Everton and Villa for 4th place.

I felt that, before the season, finishing within 10 points of the top would be satisfactory. We're now 12 points off the pace, 9 if we win our game in hand, and we've got Arsenal, United and Chelsea all away during the second half of the season. Barring a drastic turnaround, or winning the Champions' League, I can't see G&H keeping Rafa around, and I won't blame them for sacking him if we're 15-20 points off the top at the end of the season.

Nothwithstanding that im usually a positive poster, i can only agree with much of that sentiment.

[Imy]

I still have faith, The game is about narrow margins, it is funny how one fortunate goal can change alot of peoples views.

Straws and camels backs come in mind, too many time Rafa has been on the cautious side, OK against 'superior' teams like Arsenal, Man Yoo this can maybe be excused (not really at home though) but vs Brum and Wigan?

Watch how how the scum bags, the Chavs and Gooners destroy teams like this, wave upon wave of attack, yes there was waves of attacks vs Wigan but do we really look like scoring? having superior possession and scoring no goals is BS.

IF Rafa survives this season then he needs to look at how the team attack as a unit, how the players carve out chances, how the goals are scored because clearly something is not working.

[Jazzmaster]

1.One striker at home is fine as long as you have pacy attacking wing backs who will fire balls into the box all day long. We dont have such attacking backs.
2.Benitez goes on and on about his rotation policy keeping players fresh but he refuses to start crouch who has been rested over the chrissy period due to his suspension.
3.He expects gerrard and torres to win us every game while other players are constantly substandard.
4.I really like RB as a man, but of late i am haemmoraging faith in his ability to win the league. Birmingham, Reading, Wigan, Derby, City....... not good enough.

[FatTony]

My faith is slipping, I'm not sure if Rafa will ever get to grips with the Premiership and I'm not convinced by his transfers and strikers in particular. Other than Torres who the whole world knew how good he was his buys have been average to poor. On top of this his persistence in Kuyt is mind boggling.

He talks about progress but £40 plus million in the last transfer window and we're just 4 points better off than last year. No doubt we have some decent players now but would a number of other managers be geting more out of this bunch of players?

I'd have to say that Marueen would.