Rafa is over cautious

[Redspin]

I am sure the rest of the premierhship thought that after our 2 victories. Chelsea beat themselves to be honest......I dont think it was an incredible Scum performance.

I am very grateful for Rafa to getting us in this position and yes i am sure many on here could do better and maybe make the odd better team selection.....but i would back Rafa's judgement over a season any day of the week

Well said. Although Scum won 3-0 they were as awful as Chelsea in the first half and an injury-time goal from a set-piece was far more than they deserved, although it had indeed looked like a set-piece would be the only way they'd score.

Their play wasn't particularly creative in the second half either, lots of midfield scuffling, no decent passing game and two further goals from crosses where players were completely unmarked in the six-yard box (was Berbatov's from a free-kick/corner by Christine on the left? I forget).

So a good result but hardly a superb performance. Chelsea were utterly abysmal so the result was hardly a surprise

[wiw]

Then start him, give him the opportunity to win us the game and bring him off on 60 mins or at half time.

Exactly. What's the point in leaving him on the bench to try to rescue the game in 30mins? Play him form the start to try and get an early goal to settle the team, and if we need him to stay on the pitch for longer we can leave him on, as opposed to limiting him to a maximum of 30mins.

Your opinion is based on what you want/think Rafa should do, Rafa's is with the aid of a professional medical team? Whether we agree or not he obviously thought the team out there could beat Stoke. Even at the start of the season he looked a bit off the pace, imagine what he's like now? He's been out for a month and barely played the last couple of months.

I think it's better to have a (speculating with these figures here but you get the idea) 95% fit player for 60 mins then a 75% fit player for 30 rather than the other way around

[Craig_H]

Your opinion is based on what you want/think Rafa should do, Rafa's is with the aid of a professional medical team? Whether we agree or not he obviously thought the team out there could beat Stoke. Even at the start of the season he looked a bit off the pace, imagine what he's like now? He's been out for a month and barely played the last couple of months.

I think it's better to have a (speculating with these figures here but you get the idea) 95% fit player for 60 mins then a 75% fit player for 30 rather than the other way around

Wonder what would've happened if someone got injured after 10 mins and Torres needed to be brought on. We'd have been ****ed, eh?

Fair enough though mate, we'll keep drawing to those ****ty clubs then.
I'm sure we'll all be delighted with that. Just as long as we back every single decision rafa makes, regardless.

[wiw]

Wonder what would've happened if someone got injured after 10 mins and Torres needed to be brought on. We'd have been ****ed, eh?

Fair enough though mate, we'll keep drawing to those ****ty clubs then.
I'm sure we'll all be delighted with that. Just as long as we back every single decision rafa makes, regardless.

Then he obviously would have come on, that's what he was there for. Yeah we'll all be thrilled im sure and I don't back every decision regardless

Go on then..what if we weren't winning after 60 mins? What then? What if he started and got injured? It just makes sense to me to protect him for a couple of weeks and get his fitness back

[Craig_H]

Then he obviously would have come on, that's what he was there for. Yeah we'll all be thrilled im sure and I don't back every decision regardless

Go on then..what if we weren't winning after 60 mins? What then? What if he started and got injured? It just makes sense to me to protect him for a couple of weeks and get his fitness back

If we werent winning after 60 mins, so be it.

But hell, we'd have ****ing tried.

I've said all along, i dont expect us to win every game, i'm not that stupid.

I do expect us to be proactive in doing everything we can to win. If it doesnt happen, fair enough. But we need to do everything possible.

Instead, we come out of a game with a 0-0 draw, not even having tried to use all the tool in our armour properly.

It's a bit like going on holiday and coming home with half your spending money untouched

[anfieldanfield]

In other news it's Wednesday today.

[Baldemort]

Then he obviously would have come on, that's what he was there for. Yeah we'll all be thrilled im sure and I don't back every decision regardless

Go on then..what if we weren't winning after 60 mins? What then? What if he started and got injured? It just makes sense to me to protect him for a couple of weeks and get his fitness back

I'm not asking for a full 90 mins mate, just the option to let him influence the game longer and to give us the flexibility to have him on for longer if we need to. If you bring him on at 65 mins, all you will get is 25mins out of him. All the best medical teams in the world can't tell you exactly how long he should play for, it's just an estimation. But if you start him and he scores twice, you can take him off at half time having done the damage, or, leave him on a little longer after a half time rest. But at least if you start him, you have that option.

[wiw]

If we werent winning after 60 mins, so be it.

But hell, we'd have ****ing tried.

I've said all along, i dont expect us to win every game, i'm not that stupid.

I do expect us to be proactive in doing everything we can to win. If it doesnt happen, fair enough. But we need to do everything possible.

Instead, we come out of a game with a 0-0 draw, not even having tried to use all the tool in our armour properly.

It's a bit like going on holiday and coming home with half your spending money untouched

See where you're coming from better now

What if he got injured though?

[Craig_H]

See where you're coming from better now

What if he got injured though?

He could get injured in the last 25 mins too though, that's a risk you cant avoid.

[Jennings]

Start with your best 11 available players. Don't put any of them on the bench.

Phil Neal played 417 consecutive games for us. Surely risks were taken during that period. Yes, the game has changed, but injuries haven't.

You can take 'em off when we are five-nil up!.