What is it with Rafa and full backs?

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure Dossena and Degen are much better players than they've shown thus far otherwise they wouldn't have been signed.

It's easy to slag them off but we're still only 3 months into a new season.

[Elvoz]

liquor

[Craig_H]

He has certainly not impressed so far. He looked a totally different player in Serie A last season though, sometimes bringing in players from foreign leagues goes as spectacularly wrong as it does right with say, a Torres. C'est la vie really, he might improve or he might be going back from whence he came next summer, c'est la vie imo. He's the only expensive full-back "mistake" (assuming he is one) Rafa's made in that position and I reckon we can offset a lot of his cost against potential profit from Arbeloa.

I dont think we can afford to be making mistakes as expensive as Dossena, £8m for a full back is a lot of money and when you spend that much for one, you really need to be getting it right. I certainly dont think we can afford to be so blase about it. "C'est la vie" is a far more relaxed attitude than i have regarding it.

Not sure i agree on the 'offset the cost from selling Arbeloa' argument either, why would we want to sell him, he's a good player.

If we end up selling Arbeloa to offset the cost of Dossena, that would be a double balls up IMO.

[PTP]

Ouch, that's a shocking assessment of Aurelio which is nowhere near accurate. The lad is made of glass but he's not that bad a player at all.

Plus, as for Rafa's judgement of fullbacks, were it up to him Alves would be turning out for for us, and he is one hell of a player on his day. Oh, and it was him who signed Insua.

Finnan can't get a game for Espaynol and demonstrated last season that he wasn't up to the job anymore imo. Arbeloa is a decent footballer who we will make a tidy profit on if or when he's moved on... remember the way he handled Messi at the Nou Camp? Oh, and Degen (who may turn out to be pants admittedly) has only played one game for us EVER and just came back from 6 months out.

Crikey, Dr Mike prescribes a look at the league table and a health dose of anti-knee jerk pills for that man please!

haha u mad *******

[MrMichael]

I dont think we can afford to be making mistakes as expensive as Dossena, £8m for a full back is a lot of money and when you spend that much for one, you really need to be getting it right. I certainly dont think we can afford to be so blase about it. "C'est la vie" is a far more relaxed attitude than i have regarding it.

Not sure i agree on the 'offset the cost from selling Arbeloa' argument either, why would we want to sell him, he's a good player.

If we end up selling Arbeloa to offset the cost of Dossena, that would be a double balls up IMO.

Yeah, well there is that.... but until/unless we sell Dossena then we don't technically have a loss to offset

It is a lot for a full back and really we should have seen more potential if not actual delivery than we have from Dossena. I do think that a lot of players have a shakey first season, and a lot of unexpected adjustment problems, which may go some way to explaining the lack of performances from him, but I also don't quite see his potential to improve as much as he is going to need to. Hopefully we're wrong of course.

[BFG]

Apart from when he plays

He'll come good I tell you. He'll be the next, errm, Zenden!

[MrMichael]

He'll come good I tell you. He'll be the next, errm, Zenden!

Biscan even

<Insert that dubious photo here>

[Craig_H]

Yeah, well there is that.... but until/unless we sell Dossena then we don't technically have a loss to offset

It is a lot for a full back and really we should have seen more potential if not actual delivery than we have from Dossena. I do think that a lot of players have a shakey first season, and a lot of unexpected adjustment problems, which may go some way to explaining the lack of performances from him, but I also don't quite see his potential to improve as much as he is going to need to. Hopefully we're wrong of course.

It's a difficult one really because in order to settle, he needs to play, but when he plays, he's a liability who could potentially cost us.

[RedReet]

I'm pretty sure Dossena and Degen are much better players than they've shown thus far otherwise they wouldn't have been signed.

It's easy to slag them off but we're still only 3 months into a new season.

It would be interesting to dig up the Skrtel posts after Havant last year…

It was one of the worst performances from a Liverpool side I can remember though, especially the full backs. Think the replay will have to be deleted from Sky Plus.

On the plus side, how good must Carra, Pepe and the rest of the boys be to carry Dossena through the earlier games that we won? Still early days though.

[ukfootballfan101]

I personally think Arbeloa & Aurelio are both good enough, they bring good qualities to the squad, HOWEVER if we had the cash to spend I would prefer us to bring in two new full backs and have Arbeloa and Aurelio as our 2nd choice, but good full backs cost alot of money....


Who were Rafa's fullbacks at valencia? What style of player were they?

[MrMichael]

It's a difficult one really because in order to settle, he needs to play, but when he plays, he's a liability who could potentially cost us.

For me Aurelio is an easy first choice currently. He's a much better footballer than Riise was, by no means perfect but teams have won titles with worse imo. He has had some less than brilliant games for us but his lack of a real run of fitness can't help that whatsoever. That would buy Dossena time to settle culturally at least and work on some of the more basic aspects of the game here which he is getting wrong, and causing everything else to go wrong as a consequence. It shouldn't have to be like that in an ideal world, but it could be worse.

That relies on Aurelio staying fit though

[meffin]

Biscan even

<Insert that dubious photo here>

you mean this one

[The_weatherman]

I personally think Arbeloa & Aurelio are both good enough, they bring good qualities to the squad, HOWEVER if we had the cash to spend I would prefer us to bring in two new full backs and have Arbeloa and Aurelio as our 2nd choice, but good full backs cost alot of money....


Who were Rafa's fullbacks at valencia? What style of player were they?

One called Torres, Carboni, Aurelio I think. Solid players but not spectacular.

[PTP]

all i can say at this time is

SD ABC

[bobbyfallon]

all i can say at this time is

SD ABC