Rafa Benitez tells Xabi Alonso: Step things up

[Craig_H]

But he never seems to have a bad attitude on the pitch which is where it counts. I dont think the rest of the players would give a **** about anyones attitude once they are producing the goods where it counts.

I think rafa has a personal issue with crouch (whatever that may be) and is drawn more towards kuyt because of the dutchmans unquestionable work ethic. However such personal likes or dislikes should never get in the way ona professional level.

Kuyt's one of those 'yes men' types who never questions his boss ever. It's so obvious. He just gets his head down and does what he is told. Which isnt a criticism, BTW. He reminds me of a loyal dog, you'll never question his intentions...he just isnt very good, unfortunately.

[AFII]

Erm...we won 11 games in a row last season...

Why is winning at Reading, then at Marseille apparently 'impossible' to do?

It's not impossible but we only had a few days between the games so Rafa couldn't afford to take any chances. Marseille away is a very difficult game so he needed his key players fit and ready.

It would have been mayhem in here if Rafa had played his strongest team against Reading and then lost against Marseille. We would have called him a ****ing idiot if that would have happened.

IMO.

[Craig_H]

Fair enough, although I'd point out that his Pompey performance was far from being an isolated poor performance, just the final straw.

No aggressive undertones detected

I'd agree that Crouch is miles better than Kuyt on a technical level but that doesn't necessarily mean, to my way of thinking anyway, that when both are on form that Crouch offers more to the team than Kuyt does. In this regard I'd highlight Kuyt's performance v Newcastle where he seemed to be the perfect foil for Torres.

No arguments with that mate, but the key point is 'on form'. Kuyt hasnt been for about 3 months now, yet he still plays. It's clear you too wouldnt pick kuyt now...which is fair enough. Maybe rafa's waning on it too.

He should've done so ages ago though, and we might still have some kind of title challenge if he had. Cant say for sure.

I AM certain that we'd have no doubt about a top four finish right now, if Crouch had been playing for the last few months...

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

That was just before the most important game of the season so far and i believe he used it to prove to the Yanks that we have not enough strength in depth to compete in the PL and CL simultaniosly.hence his request days afterwards for a move in the transfer market.That week was obviosly all about the extra CL money needed for tranfer funds.Hence the sacrifice at Reading.

Sacrifice?

Hah.

See, this is the kind of risible, laughable even, justification for those events.

It's totally based on the supposition that a)Marseille was the most important game of the season - it wasn't to me and most other reds, that would've been the points on offer at Reading and then the scum at home the weekend after, and b) as suggested above that Rafa did pick an under strength team and silly formation, with the intention of increasing the possibility of losing in that game as some sort of ridiculous statement that the current squad wasn't good enough.

Are we really supposed to believe that?

Let's be clear here, he picked a side to win that game, as a manager would do. Only when it went wrong, largely because of him, he decided that resting our best players for the next game was more important, because (I think) he's brainwashed people into his fatuous rotation, big squad way of thinking that this needed to be done to beat a poor Marseille team days later.

In retrospect what it did do was destroy any momentum we had in the league, and also belief. What it told me was we had a manger who decided that it wasn't worth fighting for 3 points with everything he had available on the day.

That might be the truth, it may not, but it's my interpretation, and nothing that Rafa has done since has made me change my opinion.

It wasn't good enough then, and it still isn't now.

And I await improvement.

[Craig_H]

Rafa have never in his career at the top favourised a player so why would he do that with Kuyt? Rafa is ruthless when it comes down that.

Well sorry, but he IS doing it now...

First time for everything fella.

[Johnny]

It's not impossible but we only had a few days between the games so Rafa couldn't afford to take any chances. Marseille away is a very difficult game so he needed his key players fit and ready.

It would have been mayhem in here if Rafa had played his strongest team against Reading and then lost against Marseille. We would have called him a ****ing idiot if that would have happened.

IMO.

We had ManU after Marseille also.Reading was a sacrifice to prove a point.IMHO.

[AFII]

Well sorry, but he IS doing it now...

First time for everything fella.

Proof?

[Craig_H]

You're putting words into his mouth there Syd.

Paraphrasing maybe, but it's the general gist of what he was saying mate!

I'm happy to take a seat on the fence at present on the whole thing. I'll reserve full and final judgment until the end of the season.

I look into my crystal ball and i see the end of the season...where things havent improved much...and you're heard muttering "Ah, let's give him ONE more season...!"

[Craig_H]

It's not impossible but we only had a few days between the games so Rafa couldn't afford to take any chances. Marseille away is a very difficult game so he needed his key players fit and ready.

It would have been mayhem in here if Rafa had played his strongest team against Reading and then lost against Marseille. We would have called him a ****ing idiot if that would have happened.

IMO.

Yes, but we're not Everton on our first european campaign for 30 years here....

We're seasoned CL campaigners and with the size of squad we have, winning at Reading and then in Marseille 4 days later shouldnt be considered a tricky 'mission'...

[AFII]

DJS, you do know that Kuyt hasn't played that much the last two months compared to the start of the season? He was even benched three games in a row if I remember things right.

So Rafa isn't favourising him.

[Johnny]

Sacrifice?

Hah.

See, this is the kind of risible, laughable even, justification for those events.

It's totally based on the supposition that a)Marseille was the most important game of the season - it wasn't to me and most other reds, that would've been the points on offer at Reading and then the scum at home the weekend after, and b) as suggested above that Rafa did pick an under strength team and silly formation, with the intention of increasing the possibility of losing in that game as some sort of ridiculous statement that the current squad wasn't good enough.

Are we really supposed to believe that?

Let's be clear here, he picked a side to win that game, as a manager would do. Only when it went wrong, largely because of him, he decided that resting our best players for the next game was more important, because (I think) he's brainwashed people into his fatuous rotation, big squad way of thinking that this needed to be done to beat a poor Marseille team days later.

In retrospect what it did do was destroy any momentum we had in the league, and also belief. What it told me was we had a manger who decided that it wasn't worth fighting for 3 points with everything he had available on the day.

That might be the truth, it may not, but it's my interpretation, and nothing that Rafa has done since has made me change my opinion.

It wasn't good enough then, and it still isn't now.

And I await improvement.

Fair enough,It might be a little far fetched but it did prove that we didn`t have the team to compete in all three games.A week later Rafa got embroiled in a row with G+H about transfers knowing they were on their way to Anfield to watch us against ManU.

[Craig_H]

Sacrifice?

Hah.

See, this is the kind of risible, laughable even, justification for those events.

It's totally based on the supposition that a)Marseille was the most important game of the season - it wasn't to me and most other reds, that would've been the points on offer at Reading and then the scum at home the weekend after, and b) as suggested above that Rafa did pick an under strength team and silly formation, with the intention of increasing the possibility of losing in that game as some sort of ridiculous statement that the current squad wasn't good enough.

Are we really supposed to believe that?

Let's be clear here, he picked a side to win that game, as a manager would do. Only when it went wrong, largely because of him, he decided that resting our best players for the next game was more important, because (I think) he's brainwashed people into his fatuous rotation, big squad way of thinking that this needed to be done to beat a poor Marseille team days later.

In retrospect what it did do was destroy any momentum we had in the league, and also belief. What it told me was we had a manger who decided that it wasn't worth fighting for 3 points with everything he had available on the day.

That might be the truth, it may not, but it's my interpretation, and nothing that Rafa has done since has made me change my opinion.

It wasn't good enough then, and it still isn't now.

And I await improvement.

Agree with every word.

The notion that Rafa went into Reading with any intention other than winning is laughable.

If he was openly happy to 'sacrifice' that game for the benefit of Marseille, Gerrard, Torres, Carra, Reina & Masher etc wouldnt have started...

[AFII]

Yes, but we're not Everton on our first european campaign for 30 years here....

We're seasoned CL campaigners and with the size of squad we have, winning at Reading and then in Marseille 4 days later shouldnt be considered a tricky 'mission'...

The size of the squad won't matter when you have very few key players that must be fit or you will struggle.

[Craig_H]

Proof?

??????? Yer fecking wha????

What do you want, a signed confession?

The proof, is that Kuyt has been useless for ages, and has kept being picked, at the expense of the far superior-performing Crouch...

Let's see who plays on sunday...

[Johnny]

DJS, you do know that Kuyt hasn't played that much the last two months compared to the start of the season? He was even benched three games in a row if I remember things right.

So Rafa isn't favourising him.

Two of those games were Against H+W,No????I could be wrong.