Rafa's pre-match criticism of Drogba

[Pacman]

Go back to sleep.

Very good.

****ing idiot.

[Pacman]

It really is like living out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest reading some of these posts after a loss. Incredible.

There really are some dead beats on here today.

[Darth Marty]

There really are some dead beats on here today.

Damn right, if we were to listen to these ****wits then not only would we have sold gerrard for 30mill, we would have instantly dismissed Rafa after questioning his integrity and questioned his right to call a spade a spade.

Must be mancs.

[Craig_H]

Extra bit of motivation? So he isn't already motivated to the max because it's a CL semi final? That would surprise me.

I guess the Rafa bashers will claim this as another stick to beat him with.

Pathetic really.

What's pathetic is your inability to see anything other than sheer RCDNW as 'beating him'.

I'm not beating him, i said the mind games thing can do two ways, sometimes it works, other times less so. On this occasion i think it had a negative impact for us, but that's the chance you take. Where am i 'beating' him?

[Craig_H]

As far as I'm concerned, Rafa's strategy of pointing out Drogba's diving worked. At no point during the match did he dive. He didn't dare. Rafa successfully turned it into a fairer contest and not one decided by cheating which was Rafa's aim all along.

In the 1st leg, when he was focussed on diving, he had no shots at all.

Last night, he stayed on his feet and duly won them the tie. I know which i'd prefer.

[Craig_H]

So you are suggesting that a professional footballer NEEDS motivating for a CL semi final?

FFS, whether he needs it or not, giving him an extra incentive to shut you up is clearly not helpful.

[Snigger]

In the 1st leg, when he was focussed on diving, he had no shots at all.

Last night, he stayed on his feet and duly won them the tie. I know which i'd prefer.

What's that got to do with it? two different games one at home one away. Rafa's comments were not aimed at Drog****, they were aimed at the ref. Rafa's comments ensured all eyes were on Drog**** so that he couldn't con the ref this time, the fact that he scored two goals has nothing to do with him diving in the first leg. Much of the injury time in the first leg that lead to a 95th minute goal from Riise was due to Drogba rolling on the grass like a pig in **** so whilst he had no shots he still indirectly won them an away goal.

[Pacman]

What's pathetic is your inability to see anything other than sheer RCDNW as 'beating him'.

I'm not beating him, i said the mind games thing can do two ways, sometimes it works, other times less so. On this occasion i think it had a negative impact for us, but that's the chance you take. Where am i 'beating' him?

Not beating him? Every thread you post on you have a little dig at our manager.

Drogba
Money
Too negative

The list goes on.

We got beat last night because our players made one or 2 more mistakes than Chelsea's. They didn't out class us and Grant didn't out tactic Rafa.

We just lost.

[zimbo]

So you are suggesting that a professional footballer NEEDS motivating for a CL semi final?

I remember when we played Bayern Munich in the 1981 semi final. Attractively permed midfield general Paul Breitner came out after the first leg at Anfield and said that our play lacked intelligence and that they would have a comfortable victory in the second leg.

Paisley stuck the cuttings up on the dressing room wall and said afterwards that there was no need for a team-talk once the players had read what old springy-bonce had been piping out. Cue a memorable 1-1 draw with a heavily depleted team, and Sammy Lee marking bombhead out of the game.

All I'm saying is that anything that can give you even the slightest incentive to raise your game is likely to be seized upon. Whether it has any effect in reality is impossible to judge. But perhaps it's best not to take the chance, for fear it may come back to bite you on the arse.

I think Rafa would have been wiser to stroke Drogba's ego beforehand, saying what a good player he was, with perhaps the slightest hint of the kind of knowing sarcasm he generally excels at. In hindsight, of course. Which is always the most comfortable place to view these things.

[Pacman]

I remember when we played Bayern Munich in the 1981 semi final. Attractively permed midfield general Paul Breitner came out after the first leg at Anfield and said that our play lacked intelligence and that they would have a comfortable victory in the second leg.

Paisley stuck the cuttings up on the dressing room wall and said afterwards that there was no need for a team-talk once the players had read what old springy-bonce had been piping out. Cue a memorable 1-1 draw with a heavily depleted team, and Sammy Lee marking bombhead out of the game.

All I'm saying is that anything that can give you even the slightest incentive to raise your game is likely to be seized upon. Whether it has any effect in reality is impossible to judge. But perhaps it's best not to take the chance, for fear it may come back to bite you on the arse.

I think Rafa would have been wiser to stroke Drogba's ego beforehand, saying what a good player he was, with perhaps the slightest hint of the kind of knowing sarcasm he generally excels at. In hindsight, of course. Which is always the most comfortable place to view these things.

Good post mate.

It could be looked at from a different angle though I thought the ref last night handled Drogba very well indeed. He didn't fall for his play acting and to be fair for all of the 2nd half he was pretty pants.

If Rafa had come out and said Chelsea are a poor team that lacked intelligence then I think he would have dropped a clanger because he's talking about a team and not an individual. Lets face it I bet the likes of Terry, Lampard, Cole etc actually agree with Rafa's comments.

[Snigger]

I remember when we played Bayern Munich in the 1981 semi final. Attractively permed midfield general Paul Breitner came out after the first leg at Anfield and said that our play lacked intelligence and that they would have a comfortable victory in the second leg.

Paisley stuck the cuttings up on the dressing room wall and said afterwards that there was no need for a team-talk once the players had read what old springy-bonce had been piping out. Cue a memorable 1-1 draw with a heavily depleted team, and Sammy Lee marking bombhead out of the game.

All I'm saying is that anything that can give you even the slightest incentive to raise your game is likely to be seized upon. Whether it has any effect in reality is impossible to judge. But perhaps it's best not to take the chance, for fear it may come back to bite you on the arse.

I think Rafa would have been wiser to stroke Drogba's ego beforehand, saying what a good player he was, with perhaps the slightest hint of the kind of knowing sarcasm he generally excels at. In hindsight, of course. Which is always the most comfortable place to view these things.

Yep, except the aim wasn't to piss Drogba off - if it was aimed at the referee and officials to make them aware of Drogba's diving and from that perspective worked a treat.

[Johnny]

As far as I'm concerned, Rafa's strategy of pointing out Drogba's diving worked. At no point during the match did he dive. He didn't dare. Rafa successfully turned it into a fairer contest and not one decided by cheating which was Rafa's aim all along.

[Craig_H]

Not beating him? Every thread you post on you have a little dig at our manager.

Drogba
Money
Too negative

The list goes on.

We got beat last night because our players made one or 2 more mistakes than Chelsea's. They didn't out class us and Grant didn't out tactic Rafa.

We just lost.

Why cant you differentiate between disagreeing with some of his decisions, and 'beating' him?

What have i said about money that's a 'dig' at him?

Is he ever wrong about anything, ever?

[Craig_H]

I remember when we played Bayern Munich in the 1981 semi final. Attractively permed midfield general Paul Breitner came out after the first leg at Anfield and said that our play lacked intelligence and that they would have a comfortable victory in the second leg.

Paisley stuck the cuttings up on the dressing room wall and said afterwards that there was no need for a team-talk once the players had read what old springy-bonce had been piping out. Cue a memorable 1-1 draw with a heavily depleted team, and Sammy Lee marking bombhead out of the game.

All I'm saying is that anything that can give you even the slightest incentive to raise your game is likely to be seized upon. Whether it has any effect in reality is impossible to judge. But perhaps it's best not to take the chance, for fear it may come back to bite you on the arse.

I think Rafa would have been wiser to stroke Drogba's ego beforehand, saying what a good player he was, with perhaps the slightest hint of the kind of knowing sarcasm he generally excels at. In hindsight, of course. Which is always the most comfortable place to view these things.

[zimbo]

Good post mate.

It could be looked at from a different angle though I thought the ref last night handled Drogba very well indeed. He didn't fall for his play acting and to be fair for all of the 2nd half he was pretty pants.

If Rafa had come out and said Chelsea are a poor team that lacked intelligence then I think he would have dropped a clanger because he's talking about a team and not an individual. Lets face it I bet the likes of Terry, Lampard, Cole etc actually agree with Rafa's comments.

To be fair to Drogba, which is not something I care to do that regularly, I didn't see much in his play last night that was untoward. Maybe he was just concentrating all his efforts on making Rafa eat his words? Maybe he thought he wouldn't get away with it given that the ref was no mug? Maybe he realised that it just makes him look like a bit of a dick? Who knows?

And for Joe Cole to take the moral high ground in any debate about diving would be like Patrick Kielty berating Vernon Kay for lacking sincerity.