Post match thread

[Bender]

it's things like why he persists with kuyt,why he won't try babel up front and why we are so poor as a team when it comes to attacking the opposition.And his substitutions i mean taking of babel,yossi our only creative players and bringing on another striker

[Darth Marty]

I agree with you that those issues are damned annoying, theres nithing I can say to defend the boss there. Hope he learns, changes the personnel so that his rotation system is flawless. He can manage it im sure.

[StevieG08]

For me the biggest worry is the pace we have or more to the point don't have. Without Torres, Gerrard or Babel the team is like a Slug when moving forward. We don't break with the pace and menace that utd and arsenal do, add to that the fact we seem inferior in passing the ball and it's no wonder we struggle to compete.

[kurtangle01]

I agree that we're only a couple of quality players short.

I cant generally fault rafa in his squad building process, he's worked wonders there and i'm grateful for that.

But the problem for me isnt that. We HAVE a strong squad and quality players. Rafa just doesnt utilise it properly IMO. He doesnt have a settled system or enough stability in his team selections for me.

THAT is why i am concerned, because whoever he has to choose from, he doesnt offer much sign that he'd make the right choices in the vast majority of cases.

He got it wrong today and has done in the past but more often than not he gets it right. The only thing I would have liked today, apart from a better performance from the team, would have been Torres on the bench.

I bet we all thought that team would have walked all over Luton today. I certainly did but they, the players, never performed.

[The Glove]

The players out there today to a man wouldve walked in to Lutons team. That tells me they are good enough to have won. They did not look arsed. Right from the off. Now if players dont look interested from the begining, there aint much that a manager can do about that. If they started then tailed off you can ask questions of the manager because it'd be for him to keep them going but they didnt. They all looked like, '**** this, its ******* freezin and its its ****ty Luton'.

Rafa tried mixing it up, moving players around to try and get some sort of reaction and it didnt work. I dont remember once any of them winning a 50/50, in fact they didnt even go for any. ****bags. Only Carra did well and he was basically defending on his own since he had a tugboat alongside him. We were lucky today and Luton shouldve won. They didnt and that'll be them out next Tuesday.

[Bender]

I agree with you that those issues are damned annoying, theres nithing I can say to defend the boss there. Hope he learns, changes the personnel so that his rotation system is flawless. He can manage it im sure.

thing is mate does rafa really see it as a issue,time and time again he sticks babel out on the left and sticks with kuyt,and out of curiosity what was his thinking of playing mascher and alonso in a midfield at home against the mighty wigan

[Johnny]

Lucky it wasn`t Coventry we played.

[Craig_H]

He got it wrong today and has done in the past but more often than not he gets it right. The only thing I would have liked today, apart from a better performance from the team, would have been Torres on the bench.

I bet we all thought that team would have walked all over Luton today. I certainly did but they, the players, never performed.

Out of 20 league games, we've won half. For me, that says that he actually doesnt get it right a vast majority of the time.

The players didnt perform, but the odd decisions dont help, in terms of players out of position. Furthermore, it's upto the manager to get the best out of them, isnt it?

[Bender]

Lucky it wasn`t Coventry we played.

[PaulLinehan]

New managers always bring upheaval, its accepted because good managers always have their own team, methods and preferred personnel. Rafa is spanish and has brought in lots of spanish players, guaranteed they would all reconsider their positions should Rafa get the boot, **** me even Torres loves Rafa, Mascher probably wants to wait to see if Rafa is boss next year before even looking at contracts placed in front of him and all the youth players would no doubt be threatened if a different coach came in. You tell me how that could be good for the future of the club? And if you are beong seious about asking me to tell you how things have improved then you are even more of a crackhead than I gave you credit for.

If it is decided (at the end of the season) that rafa is not the man, then the fact that xabi, reina and others might consider their future should not stop the correct decision being made. The most important thing is the CLUB.....

Gerrard loved Houllier but it didnt stop the correct decision being made then now did it??? If we did bring in a new manager, then he would need to assess the squad himself.... if xabi, torres or anyone else wanted to play somewhere else, then we dont need them.... although playing for rafa might have swayed their decision when signing for LFC, they still sgned for LFC....and you can be sure that most of them would want to play for the new man anyway...


at the end of the day though, i reckon by the end of the season, we will end up united in supporting rafa anyway...i reckon he will guide us out of this blip period and bring us close at the end of the year.....

YNWA

[kurtangle01]

Out of 20 league games, we've won half. For me, that says that he actually doesnt get it right a vast majority of the time.

The players didnt perform, but the odd decisions dont help, in terms of players out of position. Furthermore, it's upto the manager to get the best out of them, isnt it?

Ofcourse. That goes without saying but they never looked arsed today. Not one of them, Carra apart, went in for a 50-50.

When they cross that line it's up to them but today they never performed. I'm sure, regardless of what he says in interviews, they'll be told as much at training tomorrow. Hopefully we see a better performance at Boro next week as a result.

[Craig_H]

The players out there today to a man wouldve walked in to Lutons team. That tells me they are good enough to have won. They did not look arsed. Right from the off. Now if players dont look interested from the begining, there aint much that a manager can do about that. If they started then tailed off you can ask questions of the manager because it'd be for him to keep them going but they didnt. They all looked like, '**** this, its ******* freezin and its its ****ty Luton'.

Rafa tried mixing it up, moving players around to try and get some sort of reaction and it didnt work. I dont remember once any of them winning a 50/50, in fact they didnt even go for any. ****bags. Only Carra did well and he was basically defending on his own since he had a tugboat alongside him. We were lucky today and Luton shouldve won. They didnt and that'll be them out next Tuesday.

Do you not consider it part of the manager's job to get the players motivated and up for it?

Plenty of managers get performances out of average players. Why cant rafa get performances out of our players?

[Craig_H]

Ofcourse. That goes without saying but they never looked arsed today. Not one of them, Carra apart, went in for a 50-50.

When they cross that line it's up to them but today they never performed. I'm sure, regardless of what he says in interviews, they'll be told as much at training tomorrow. Hopefully we see a better performance at Boro next week as a result.

Well if the answer is 'of course' and yet he ISNT getting it out of them, doesnt he have to take some blame?

[Slinky Skills]

What gets me is that there is are 8 players that play well on a consistent basis, those are Reina, Carragher, Finnan, Agger, Alonso (before they both got injured) Gerrard, Mascherano, and Torres, even if they get dropped/rested and come back for the next game then they still put in a half decent performance when they do play.

Shouldn't the rest of the players who are in and out of the team adopt the same attitude as these guys? I know it's frustrating for them not always being in the starting X1 but I feel they're letting Rafa down. The spine of the time always play well for us, it just seems to me that the other players let the club down.

I know Rafa tinkers with the team but the players he chooses all have the ability and quality to play for us but don't always put the effort in. I think it's a case of bad attitude and not knuckling down rather than ability.

[kurtangle01]

Well if the answer is 'of course' and yet he ISNT getting it out of them, doesnt he have to take some blame?

It's not really been a problem for him in the past. Istanbul being one example. Perhaps the uncertainty surrounding his future with the club is having more of an effect on the players than we'd like to believe...Just an opinion of course. I have no idea for fact if that is the case.