Rafa interview

[Roboklopp]

Should make this and the 48 in/49 out post a sticky. It might stop the tedious 'Rafa has spent £150m/more than anyone else and we are still **** etc etc' posts

[Elvis]

I wonder why Rafa chose to say that things are complicated for Crouch now...? Presumably they are just as complicated for Voronin...?

[MattB]

Presumably because he is stalling over a new deal

[ineednewfootwear]

I wondered when folkes were going to pick up on that

It was on BBC or SKY or one of those sites over the weekend. Rafinha is being tipped as the first teamer and two South American lads as the others, although no names were mentioned there.

Balague is ace! Tabloid journalists are lazy fcuks, why anyone bothers to read their drivel is beyond me. And as for the commentators who harp on about Torres not playing more games, they should all be fired for incompetence. And worse still, nobody ever calls them out on it. Proof, if it were needed, that mediocrity is now considered acceptable in modern media.

[dww]

I wonder why Rafa chose to say that things are complicated for Crouch now...? Presumably they are just as complicated for Voronin...?

I don't think so actually. Voronin can compete for the Kuyt/Babel roles whereas Crouch can't. Basically as I see it there is a two horse race to be the main striker in our team and Torres is bound to win against just about anyone. Whoever is second choice next season will either have to compete for other positions or accept a bench role similar to that Crouch has played this year.

[kemm1]

Fantastic article, this should be sent to all the radio phone-ins and sports journos in the country and should be made a sticky.

[Vermilion]

Love it when Rafa shoots these idotic theories down...

Question.
Certain commentators say that if Fernando Torres had played more you could have been challenging for the Premier League title.

Rafa, Answer.
That has been one of the great lies of this season. There are a lot of people that talk without having thought things through about the number of games Torres has played and the impact that this has had on our performance in the league. Torres did not take part in the victorious games against Toulouse [4-0], Besiktas [8-0] and Havant & Waterlooville [5-2].

He didn’t make the bench in eight games; for six of these he was injured, which seems to be something that people forget. The other two games were in the FA Cup and Carling Cup, so the theory about our position in the league being down to Torres being missing doesn’t add up.

[dww]

To be honest though there is a bit of slight of hand there with him talking about having him on the bench. Clearly in the Portsmouth game for example being in the team was what was needed for that game. Although to be honest the bench experience seemed to spur him on so maybe it all worked out for the best (and he did have early injury niggles so that is another part of the explanation).

Momentum was lost at that point (although we didn't lose many early on we didn't win enough).

A good counter argument to the press position also has to include reference to how he played when less than fully fit against Arsenal and how much we improved that day when Crouch came on. The exact gamble the press wanted to see more often failed that day.

[Monty]

To be honest though there is a bit of slight of hand there with him talking about having him on the bench. Clearly in the Portsmouth game for example being in the team was what was needed for that game. Although to be honest the bench experience seemed to spur him on so maybe it all worked out for the best (and he did have early injury niggles so that is another part of the explanation).

Momentum was lost at that point (although we didn't lose many early on we didn't win enough).

A good counter argument to the press position also has to include reference to how he played when less than fully fit against Arsenal and how much we improved that day when Crouch came on. The exact gamble the press wanted to see more often failed that day.

I can't recall correctly but wasn't he 'coming back from' injury in that game dww? In which case it would make sense to have him on the bench.

[dww]

I can't recall correctly but wasn't he 'coming back from' injury in that game dww? In which case it would make sense to have him on the bench.

Not entirely sure and he got the last 30 minutes so you have to think he was pretty fit. I accept the point though and I did mention his injury niggles in my original post. I just think that while the press clearly created a myth surrounding his not playing that people are going too far in implying that Rafa hasn't made some sub-optimal choices this season.

To be fair to him he lost his most trusted lieutenant at a time when we bought in a number of new players which has to be hard.

Also there is a fairy tale that Torres has been great all season when in fact just after Christmas he was ****. The Man City game and a few others around that period all of our forwards were in terrible form.

[Monty]

Not entirely sure and he got the last 30 minutes so you have to think he was pretty fit. I accept the point though and I did mention his injury niggles in my original post. I just think that while the press clearly created a myth surrounding his not playing that people are going too far in implying that Rafa hasn't made some sub-optimal choices this season.

To be fair to him he lost his most trusted lieutenant at a time when we bought in a number of new players which has to be hard.

Also there is a fairy tale that Torres has been great all season when in fact just after Christmas he was ****. The Man City game and a few others around that period all of our forwards were in terrible form.

I still think he has a better argument for his case, than the majority of the press/pundits who use this excuse to hit him over the head with.

[Kev_81]

Just listened to Guillem Ballague on the times podcast (a bit of the interview is on it), he reckons we have f%%K all to spend in the summer and the bulk of the money will be from sales, he talks about those three signings saying he knows the senior player and has discussed it on the podcasts in the past.

Mentioned Carson, Crouch and Alonso as possible departures but said nothing more than we already know, Does say that we will be able to buy the players in the areas we need, full back, winger etc.

Said Hicks will be here for years as the 40m profit he could make now is not enough he is looking at 150m

Ballague does like to pretend he knows everything but in fairness he is right quite often with stuff about us, Just seems to be confirming what alot of people think will happen, ie **** all to spend and Hicks staying.


Just a summary if anyone cannot be arsed to listen to it

[Roboklopp]

worst of all worlds then

[Woobus]

I can't recall correctly but wasn't he 'coming back from' injury in that game dww? In which case it would make sense to have him on the bench.

I think that was just after the internationals. He had flew from Liverpool to Spain, to Iceland, to Spain, somewhere else, back to Liverpool, down to Portsmouth and then we had Porto away in Europe after that. He also picked up a small knock from memory in Iceland.

[senorbutch]

quality read that, rafa the legend