What was Rafa playing at last night?

[Sir Bob]

I love Rafa to bits & wouldn't swap him for any other manager in the world.

I've also got no particular problem with his rotation policy either. If he thinks the best way for us to challenge on all fronts is to constantly rotate players, then fair enough.

However, last night I have to say i was baffled by our performance & even more baffled by Rafa's reaction afterwards.
Last night defensively we were shocking. Whilst Galatasary were great, we allowed them to be, as we gave them so much room to play. Once we went 3-0 up we should have shut up shop. Under Rafa we always do once we get a 2 or 3 goal lead. Aurelio was a disgrace last night as a LB. I know he was good going forward & his cross for the goal was outstanding but defensively he was shocking. As a LB you can't just bomb forward all the time, particularly when 2 or 3 up. We needed a 4th goal at the end to make us comfortable. We should never need a 4th goal at home to ensure a win.

For the life of me, I don't know why Aurelio was kept on. I don't know why Rafa wasn't on the touchline bollocking every time he went AWOL. It wasn't just that he went forward too often but he also drifted inside all the time as well. I know Aurelio likes to go forward but if you play LB you must defend.
Ditto SG & Alonso. If they play together Alonso must play the more defensive role. If Alonso can't play this role, play someone who can. Momo can't play every game but he could have brought him on much earlier than he did. Equally, he could have brought Sami on & moved carra to midfield.

I hate to see us play in such a cavalier way. I know it was entertaining but we very nearly squandered vital points. You win nothing playing gung-ho football & I expected Rafa to be steaming at the end.
Instead, I've never seen him so happy after a game. I was well shocked. He was laughing & joking with the interviewer when he should expressed his displeasure at our performance. If we perform like that against top quality opposition we'll get beat. Rafa will know that so I hope plenty of bollocking were given in the dressing room.

Thoughts please.

do you agree with me or am I being an old stick in the mud.

[Whitey85]

We played some brilliant football first half. It looked like great team selection from Rafa.

The 2nd half was bad. Complacency kicked in and we luckily got through the game without conceding a 3rd goal.

Im not worried. Every so often we have games like these. We are Liverpool and we dont do things the easy way.

Great game anyway. Really enjoyed it.

[JRC]

I said to my lad at Half Time, don't worry, he'll sort out the Left side defence issues for the second half.Perhaps the plan was to attack more and push the wide men back. I think Gonzalez was told to help Aurelio out more, but he struggled with a knock for quite a while - again I thought he could have been changed if he was struggling.

Given his ability and propensity for tactical changes, I am surprised we didn't see Riise or Momo earlier. But whatever his demeanour, you can be sure the boys will have a long time in front of the DVD player over the next few days. And, in the end, we got 3 points - job done; and a fascinating contrast with the 'clean sheet - anything else is a bonus' performance in Eindhoven, PSV probably being 'better quality opposition', which shows we can do it if needed.

[Red_hot]

I love Rafa to bits & wouldn't swap him for any other manager in the world.

I've also got no particular problem with his rotation policy either. If he thinks the best way for us to challenge on all fronts is to constantly rotate players, then fair enough.

However, last night I have to say i was baffled by our performance & even more baffled by Rafa's reaction afterwards.
Last night defensively we were shocking. Whilst Galatasary were great, we allowed them to be, as we gave them so much room to play. Once we went 3-0 up we should have shut up shop. Under Rafa we always do once we get a 2 or 3 goal lead. Aurelio was a disgrace last night as a LB. I know he was good going forward & his cross for the goal was outstanding but defensively he was shocking. As a LB you can't just bomb forward all the time, particularly when 2 or 3 up. We needed a 4th goal at the end to make us comfortable. We should never need a 4th goal at home to ensure a win.

For the life of me, I don't know why Aurelio was kept on. I don't know why Rafa wasn't on the touchline bollocking every time he went AWOL. It wasn't just that he went forward too often but he also drifted inside all the time as well. I know Aurelio likes to go forward but if you play LB you must defend.
Ditto SG & Alonso. If they play together Alonso must play the more defensive role. If Alonso can't play this role, play someone who can. Momo can't play every game but he could have brought him on much earlier than he did. Equally, he could have brought Sami on & moved carra to midfield.

I hate to see us play in such a cavalier way. I know it was entertaining but we very nearly squandered vital points. You win nothing playing gung-ho football & I expected Rafa to be steaming at the end.
Instead, I've never seen him so happy after a game. I was well shocked. He was laughing & joking with the interviewer when he should expressed his displeasure at our performance. If we perform like that against top quality opposition we'll get beat. Rafa will know that so I hope plenty of bollocking were given in the dressing room.

Thoughts please.

do you agree with me or am I being an old stick in the mud.

Were you sat in the Kop? Bloke next to me never stopped bitching about Aurelio the entire match!

[paulcooper4]

Were you sat in the Kop? Bloke next to me never stopped bitching about Aurelio the entire match!

sorry

[alunevans]

I love Rafa to bits & wouldn't swap him for any other manager in the world.

I've also got no particular problem with his rotation policy either. If he thinks the best way for us to challenge on all fronts is to constantly rotate players, then fair enough.

However, last night I have to say i was baffled by our performance & even more baffled by Rafa's reaction afterwards.
Last night defensively we were shocking. Whilst Galatasary were great, we allowed them to be, as we gave them so much room to play. Once we went 3-0 up we should have shut up shop. Under Rafa we always do once we get a 2 or 3 goal lead. Aurelio was a disgrace last night as a LB. I know he was good going forward & his cross for the goal was outstanding but defensively he was shocking. As a LB you can't just bomb forward all the time, particularly when 2 or 3 up. We needed a 4th goal at the end to make us comfortable. We should never need a 4th goal at home to ensure a win.

For the life of me, I don't know why Aurelio was kept on. I don't know why Rafa wasn't on the touchline bollocking every time he went AWOL. It wasn't just that he went forward too often but he also drifted inside all the time as well. I know Aurelio likes to go forward but if you play LB you must defend.
Ditto SG & Alonso. If they play together Alonso must play the more defensive role. If Alonso can't play this role, play someone who can. Momo can't play every game but he could have brought him on much earlier than he did. Equally, he could have brought Sami on & moved carra to midfield.

I hate to see us play in such a cavalier way. I know it was entertaining but we very nearly squandered vital points. You win nothing playing gung-ho football & I expected Rafa to be steaming at the end.
Instead, I've never seen him so happy after a game. I was well shocked. He was laughing & joking with the interviewer when he should expressed his displeasure at our performance. If we perform like that against top quality opposition we'll get beat. Rafa will know that so I hope plenty of bollocking were given in the dressing room.

Thoughts please.

do you agree with me or am I being an old stick in the mud.

I agree 110%

[Red_hot]

sorry

[mersey86]

Bob,
I was surprised too that we did not look to tighten up for the second half. Maybe Rafa thought it would be good for morale if we could give a top team a throrough pounding. Whatever, it didn't work out as he intended.
I'm sure the performance will be used to "educate" a few of our players for the future.

[CAD]

Good post!

I agree and I'm left as confused as you. The left side shambles should have been addressed much sooner.

[roegahnn]

Agree with most of that. Aurelio was naive to keep pushing forward, but Garcia offered virtually no protection in the first or second half.

As well as this, Alonso and Gerrard never got to grips with the changes they made at half time. Both were poor defensively and wasteful in posession when we needed to slow the game down.

I was very surprised with Rafa's reaction, as I think 99% of the people watching could see Auerlio was outnumbered time and again by Sas and Sabri. He should have changed to a 451 after the third goal and killed the game off.

[IJM]

I thought the very same thing. As soon as the second half got under way, it quickly became apparent that they were going to be a handful. We stopped controlling the game as they won possession and drove right at us.

Then Crouchy scored his goal and I thought, "Right, he (Rafa) should take a forward off and bung Sissoko on to break up their play. They're getting feisty, so let's kill their game, take control again and crush any ideas they might have about a come back."

I was amazed when he put Gonzalez on instead.

[Redspin]

I love Rafa to bits & wouldn't swap him for any other manager in the world.

I've also got no particular problem with his rotation policy either. If he thinks the best way for us to challenge on all fronts is to constantly rotate players, then fair enough.

However, last night I have to say i was baffled by our performance & even more baffled by Rafa's reaction afterwards.
Last night defensively we were shocking. Whilst Galatasary were great, we allowed them to be, as we gave them so much room to play. Once we went 3-0 up we should have shut up shop. Under Rafa we always do once we get a 2 or 3 goal lead. Aurelio was a disgrace last night as a LB. I know he was good going forward & his cross for the goal was outstanding but defensively he was shocking. As a LB you can't just bomb forward all the time, particularly when 2 or 3 up. We needed a 4th goal at the end to make us comfortable. We should never need a 4th goal at home to ensure a win.

For the life of me, I don't know why Aurelio was kept on. I don't know why Rafa wasn't on the touchline bollocking every time he went AWOL. It wasn't just that he went forward too often but he also drifted inside all the time as well. I know Aurelio likes to go forward but if you play LB you must defend.
Ditto SG & Alonso. If they play together Alonso must play the more defensive role. If Alonso can't play this role, play someone who can. Momo can't play every game but he could have brought him on much earlier than he did. Equally, he could have brought Sami on & moved carra to midfield.

I hate to see us play in such a cavalier way. I know it was entertaining but we very nearly squandered vital points. You win nothing playing gung-ho football & I expected Rafa to be steaming at the end.
Instead, I've never seen him so happy after a game. I was well shocked. He was laughing & joking with the interviewer when he should expressed his displeasure at our performance. If we perform like that against top quality opposition we'll get beat. Rafa will know that so I hope plenty of bollocking were given in the dressing room.

Thoughts please.

do you agree with me or am I being an old stick in the mud.

The latter! - Aurelio is a good player but he's essentially LM rather than LB. We have the same problem when Warnock plays because he's LM by trade, despite the number of games he's played at LB and he's always AWOL because his instincts are to go forward. When Pellegrino was getting a monstering it was often because he was covering the vast prairie left empty by Warnock not knowing where a full-back should be patrolling and a lot of people didn't pick up on it - Southampton away (0-2) was the classic example.

Full-back is one of the most specialist of positions. A proper full-back is worth his weight in gold. I used to really like Barry Venison because he was an old-fashioned right-back and played it superbly. You never saw him playing at RM or CB for that matter, as a lot of full-backs do these days, Same goes for Rob Jones.

In precisely the same way Riise isn't really a proper full-back. We bought him as LM and he has fitted in at LB here and there - often for many games in a row - so many people assume he's a LB, but he always wants to go wandering.

That's why Finnan is such a good - and under-rated - player for us. Although he has played RM a fair amount for Ireland he's a proper right-back and for me one of our best players - gets no real media attention but very rarely puts a foot wrong

[Jack D Rips]

Whilst I am in agreement with most of what is said in this thread, I'm surprised that there is so little criticism og Garcia's performance. He gave absolutely no cover to Fabio, and how Rafa left him on is beyond me.

Yes he scored a great goal and played well for the first 20 minutes but after that he returned to type and went AWOL.

If Rafa learned anything last night surely it is that Fabio and Luis should never again appear on the same side on the pitch.

[Guest]

Whilst I am in agreement with most of what is said in this thread, I'm surprised that there is so little criticism og Garcia's performance. He gave absolutely no cover to Fabio, and how Rafa left him on is beyond me.

Yes he scored a great goal and played well for the first 20 minutes but after that he returned to type and went AWOL.

If Rafa learned anything last night surely it is that Fabio and Luis should never again appear on the same side on the pitch.

Right.

Aurelio is an attacking left back ala Roberto Carlos, so expect to see gaps appearing when he ventures forwards, that's not new. The team will have to learn to cope defensively when he ventures forward. He's a favorite of mine and i would select him over JAR if you ask me.

[Sir Bob]

Were you sat in the Kop? Bloke next to me never stopped bitching about Aurelio the entire match!

i was in the kop but worst luck I wasn't sitting next to you Redhot

that is unless you'e either a 6 ft 2 inch builder with a beard or a 5ft 2 inch, accountant who's going bald at an astonishing rate


On a seperate point, I don't think its fair to have a pop at Garcia in relation to the problems we were caused down our left. sure defending is a team game, & its not one of Luis' best points but essentially we had a LB who wouldn't stay in position for more than 2 minutes at a time. Thats were the problem was, & that was aurelio & not Garcia's fault.