The Rafa Thread

[Skillz]

They do win it in the first few years, infact I can only think of Fergie who didn't.

That's because the rest get sacked with in 1-3 years.

[Woobus]

Lol, he's so poor at man-management and player relations that apparantly if he were to leave the likes of Torres, Gerrard and a whole host of other players would follow him out the door...well, if you believe internet rumours and tabloid speculatio that is, which apparantly you do as you seem to believe todays reports??

Lol yup I heard from a good source and one of the most popular players that Rafa is actually a God and can do no wrong Scary how a player who has been asked to leave seems to think a manager he loved has a bad management style

[rage]

No offense but I'd argue that.

If you think we play like Houlliers team I have evidence there is a clear lack of thinking going on.

traits of houllier's team as follows:

reliance on gerrard and owen
hoof ball
no width
play too much through the middle
struggle against teams that sit back and defend
no creative match winners
always defensive minded with a view to play on the counter

traits of rafa's team

reliance on gerrard and torres
hoof ball
no width
play too much through the middle
struggle against teams that sit back and defend
no creative match winners
always defensive minded with a view to play on the counter.

there is a lot that is similar about both teams.

houllier got close to competing and built a good core - his defense of early dudek, riise, hypia, henchoz, finnan with the likes of kirkland, carra, heggam and the french full back more than capable as cover for the defence.

his central midfield of gerrard and hamman in his prime easy as good as what we have now in alonso/lucas and masch

one quality striker in owen.

how is rafa any different? Houllier lacked a quality left and right midfilder its the same today.

houllier lacked a quality 2nd striker - rafa can overcome this if keane delivers else its pretty much a one man show with torres.

Houllier had heskey - we have kuyt. Infact i'd argue that houllier's fullbacks were of a better quality than rafa's.

Of course the future has potential but i'm talking about the here and now. Rafa's style of football, and the failings of our current team have more than a passing resemblance to the best days of houllier.

[Roboklopp]

Lol yup I heard from a good source and one of the most popular players that Rafa is actually a God and can do no wrong Scary how a player who has been asked to leave seems to think a manager he loved has a bad management style

My source tells me Radish is an overly-dramatic attention-seeking ****. Must be FACT.

[Exiled_red]

Rafa chooses the players end of.

Yeah Rafa chooses the players, but presumably he comes up with a list of priorities for each position, this summer for example his number 1. choice in midfield seems to be Barry now if we end up with a 2nd or 3rd choice who doesn't work out is Rafa solely to blame??

[Exiled_red]

Guus Hiddink or Frank Rijkaard would be my choice... and I'd have the Swansea manager Matinez (?) in as assistant.

What are you basing this on the fact they've done well in other leagues (in case of Hiddink and Rijkaard)?? that's the exact situation we were in with Rafa. So what makes you think they would do better?

Another manager means another few years building and getting the squad were the new manager wants, so essentially we'll wait another 3 or 4 years to get to the point we are at now with Rafa, and people will be wanting rid of him and bringing in a new man again...

[Skillz]

traits of houllier's team as follows:

reliance on gerrard and owen
hoof ball
no width
play too much through the middle
struggle against teams that sit back and defend
no creative match winners
always defensive minded with a view to play on the counter

traits of rafa's team

reliance on gerrard and torres
hoof ball
no width
play too much through the middle
struggle against teams that sit back and defend
no creative match winners
always defensive minded with a view to play on the counter.

there is a lot that is similar about both teams.

houllier got close to competing and built a good core - his defense of early dudek, riise, hypia, henchoz, finnan with the likes of kirkland, carra, heggam and the french full back more than capable as cover for the defence.

his central midfield of gerrard and hamman in his prime easy as good as what we have now in alonso/lucas and masch

one quality striker in owen.

how is rafa any different? Houllier lacked a quality left and right midfilder its the same today.

houllier lacked a quality 2nd striker - rafa can overcome this if keane delivers else its pretty much a one man show with torres.

Houllier had heskey - we have kuyt. Infact i'd argue that houllier's fullbacks were of a better quality than rafa's.

Of course the future has potential but i'm talking about the here and now. Rafa's style of football, and the failings of our current team have more than a passing resemblance to the best days of houllier.

Traits of Houlliers team = counter attack.

Traits of Rafa's team = Possession.

[Rashid]

Love him or hate him the closest we have got to a league challenge was with Roy Evans, an attacking manager. We need a tactictally astute manager who plays an attacking game and has his players showing quality on and off the ball. Rafa needs to step up or fail miserably.

[Rashid]

Traits of Houlliers team = counter attack.

Traits of Rafa's team = Possession.

Rafa's possession game is a nonsense, it's too cautious and basic - we never seem to play well around the opposition box and the players are too scared to make mistakes. We also play too many long balls and end up getting into scraps over the 2nd ball.... sorry but no way does Rafa have us playing good football.

Unless we are chasing games, or up against someone better where we can do backs against the wall counter attack - we are clueless.

[rage]

Traits of Houlliers team = counter attack.

Traits of Rafa's team = Possession.

possession without penetration is pointless. what value is there to 15 sideways passes followed by a backpass to carra who hoofs it?

also many of the arguments on this forum in support of barry was so that we could play more effective counter attacking football.

[Roboklopp]

Love him or hate him the closest we have got to a league challenge was with Roy Evans, an attacking manager. We need a tactictally astute manager who plays an attacking game and has his players showing quality on and off the ball. Rafa needs to step up or fail miserably.

The fact that the top 4 English sides are dominating Europe indicates that it is much more of a competitive league nowadays.

[Skillz]

Rafa's possession game is a nonsense, it's too cautious and basic - we never seem to play well around the opposition box and the players are too scared to make mistakes. We also play too many long balls and end up getting into scraps over the 2nd ball.... sorry but no way does Rafa have us playing good football.

Unless we are chasing games, or up against someone better where we can do backs against the wall counter attack - we are clueless.

My point was we play a vastly different style of play to Houlliers team's. Rage said it was no different but it is.

If you can't see that I can't help you other than to ask you why we are so successful against the better teams in Europe year in, year out?

How did Houllier go against Rafa's Valencia?

[rage]

My point was we play a vastly different style of play to Houlliers team's. Rage said it was no different but it is.

If you can't see that I can't help you other than to ask you why we are so successful against the better teams in Europe year in, year out?

How did Houllier go against Rafa's Valencia?

rafa's valencia would have beat rafa's liverpool just as easily

[Skillz]

possession without penetration is pointless. what value is there to 15 sideways passes followed by a backpass to carra who hoofs it?

also many of the arguments on this forum in support of barry was so that we could play more effective counter attacking football.

But possession is different to counter attack (which Rafa's team's can do as well). You said as I quoted earlier that we play the same as Houllier's team, which we do not, not even close.

[Skillz]

rafa's valencia would have beat rafa's liverpool just as easily

I doubt that very much. How you going anyway Gerard, still pissed off at getting the arse. Thanks for the cups, you were boss