Perspective and perception. Is Rafa a victim of his own success?

[Woobus]

There's no argument for or against making early/late substitutions. But one thing is for sure, why wait until the 65th minute to take off a player who's played poorly for 65 minutes when you can take them off after 45/50?

You get the best out of the person coming on totally fresh against tired legs.

[Craig_H]

So it's basically Rafa's inability to adapt appropriately that is the problem

I think he's far more suited to a cautious 'underdogs' style of football, where you keep your shape, stay compact and make it difficult for the opposition to play. His teams are always very hard to beat.

When it comes to being the attacking aggressor and having the onus to come out and press teams back, he is out of his comfort zone and it doesnt come naturally to him.

[Baldemort]

Why is our home form this year worse than say Rafa's second season?

I didn't realise we only played at home.

[Kenneth]

I didn't realise we only played at home.

This discussion just goes from strength to strength.

[Fubar]

rafa is awesome. the team are awesome. i love LIVERPOOL

[Baldemort]

I dont think it's as easily quantifiable as simply 'more' or 'less' mistakes.

It's also down to whether those mistakes have actually cost us and how often. He can make more mistakes, but they could cost us less. Or he could make less mistakes, but they might ALL prove costly.

I agree. But to for Saj say that he's worse this season is a tad nonsensical considering our league position and points haul during 2008.

[TheElephantMan]

Why have United gone from being 8/9 points behind us, to being 2 ahead of us in the last month? And remember, there's no prizes for finishing second - regardless of whether you've improved on the previous season

Automatic CL qualification?

[Baldemort]

This discussion just goes from strength to strength.

It is rather splendiferous.

[EwarWoo]

I think he's far more suited to a cautious 'underdogs' style of football, where you keep your shape, stay compact and make it difficult for the opposition to play. His teams are always very hard to beat.

When it comes to being the attacking aggressor and having the onus to come out and press teams back, he is out of his comfort zone and it doesnt come naturally to him.

At times this season we've played some fantastic attacking football. The problem doesn;t lie with him being out of his comfort zone so much as strikers beuing unavailable.

How many of those draws were constant attack, sky it, attack, wide, attack, miss the ball entirely.

Other than Torres we have no-one who can reliably get on the end of them. So unless Torres is fit we end up with a crap scoreline anyways.

Sure, that's partially down to Rafa, he must take some blame, but I thought we were pretty unlucky with Keane he could have (and personally I believe would have given time) worked.

But when he find the right guy to sit up front when Torres is injured / resting his attacking game will be excellent.

[Craig_H]

At times this season we've played some fantastic attacking football. The problem doesn;t lie with him being out of his comfort zone so much as strikers beuing unavailable.

How many of those draws were constant attack, sky it, attack, wide, attack, miss the ball entirely.

Other than Torres we have no-one who can reliably get on the end of them. So unless Torres is fit we end up with a crap scoreline anyways.

Sure, that's partially down to Rafa, he must take some blame, but I thought we were pretty unlucky with Keane he could have (and personally I believe would have given time) worked.

But when he find the right guy to sit up front when Torres is injured / resting his attacking game will be excellent.

My honest opinion is that we've become so used to slow, methodical and conservative playing styles, that the merest hint of a slightly raised tempo gets us thinking we're suddenly playing brilliant attacking football.

In several of those draws, we barely carved out a CLEAR chance.

I dont think it's about the personnel so much as Rafa's own footballing philosophy, which doesnt encourage quick, dynamic attacking football IMO.

[saj]

Automatic CL qualification?

Ha ha, and thats a prize is it? How many times have we been knocked out when we've needed to through the qualifiers?

[saj]

I didn't realise we only played at home.

Did I say we only play at home?

[Baldemort]

Champs league money is obviously important, but the league is the holy grail.

[TheElephantMan]

Ha ha, and thats a prize is it? How many times have we been knocked out when we've needed to through the qualifiers?

Yes. Finishing in the top two avoids potentially tricky encounters which could result in us dropping into a much less lucrative and attractive competition. I'm not suggesting that we should concede in our ultimate aim, but you must agree that finishing second is preferable to finishing third or fourth?

[saj]

Champs league money is obviously important, but the league is the holy grail.

Yes. Finishing in the top two avoids potentially tricky encounters which could result in us dropping into a much less lucrative and attractive competition. I'm not suggesting that we should concede in our ultimate aim, but you must agree that finishing second is preferable to finishing third or fourth?

It doesn't matter whether you finish 1 or 4th, the champions league money is put into a pot and is equally distributed.

The only English team I can recall not getting through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League is Everton. If you think (assuming we finish in that position) finishing second is a major achievement given the position we were in a few months ago then clearly you have no ambition for the team you support.