So where did it go all totally wrong?

[sinbad]

Tactical genius in europe has gone to his head. Makes baffling changes and dropping inform players, just to prove he can do it differently.

[SimonNo7]

Raf-rant?

Selling Robbie Keane?

Persistence with Dirk Kuyt?

Steven Gerrard's court case?

A bit of everything, although I do not think SGs court case has made any difference.

You could also argue all the stuff going on at the club in the background. You may argue it shouldn’t make any difference to the players but if the club is in a bit of turmoil it will have an effect on its staff which includes the players.

You can also add in the fact that a number of players are quite simply not good enough.

[lackyboy]

[QUOTE=SimonNo7;1283547]
You can also add in the fact that a number of players are quite simply not good enough.[/QUOTE]

Abundantly apparent today.

This mixed with the willingness of our manager to try almost any combination of players in any positions / formations in the premiership.

As mentioned above - what the hell has happened to Mascherano and Babel? (Agger too for that matter although not playing rather than playing ****e).

I cannot believe how pissed off I am at only our 2nd defeat in the league - it's the draws and the manner of that are so infuriating.

[Craig_H]

Too many poor players who are just not good enough.

Nothing personal against the likes of El Zhar and Ngog - but they are not adequate replacements for Torres. Babel is a major disappointment.

Without Torres, we have nothing upfront.

Nobody is an adequate replacement for Torres.

Reserve players will ALWAYS be inferior, otherwise they'd be first teamers.

[wiw]

When Torres did his hamstring

Torres - goal every other game
Kuyt/Keane - goal every 4/5 games

[BigChief]

None of the above.

We don't have the players and we don't play as a cohesive unit in attack - simple as that.

In the fifth season of our manager's career at the club. Apart from the nice distraction of CL football this is almost the same as Houllier's fifth season. Most people didn't want Houllier to go either as there 'were no suitable replacements for him'.

[-V-]

We simply don't have enough goal scorers and it has been obvious for a while. Selling Keane was a massive **** up. Its bad enough that Gerrard and Torres are rarely both fit at the same time but to be forced to play Kuyt up front on his own is a joke

[SimonNo7]

We simply don't have enough goal scorers and it has been obvious for a while. Selling Keane was a massive **** up. Its bad enough that Gerrard and Torres are rarely both fit at the same time but to be forced to play Kuyt up front on his own is a joke

But the thing with Kuyt is didn’t we buy him as an out and out striker who broke Horseface records in Holland only to yet again try and convert a striker to a workhorse winger?

[-V-]

But the thing with Kuyt is didn’t we buy him as an out and out striker who broke Horseface records in Holland only to yet again try and convert a striker to a workhorse winger?

Regardless of why we bought him its pretty clear now that he performs best wide right when he has to support 2 strikers in the middle or a Gerrard/Torres partnership. Playing him alongside Torres can also work but clearly he can't play on his own. Sadly though Rafa keeps playing him as a lone striker because we don't have other options and he still believes it can work. Stupid really

[Exiled_red]

But the thing with Kuyt is didn’t we buy him as an out and out striker who broke Horseface records in Holland only to yet again try and convert a striker to a workhorse winger?

We did buy him i as an out and out striker but from the way he's played when he's been up front this season he looks anything but a striker, he misses alot of chances.

[Red Chilli]

Raf-rant?

Selling Robbie Keane?

Persistence with Dirk Kuyt?

Steven Gerrard's court case?

The Summer.

Rafa's transfer market business was absolutely ****ing ****. Shades of Houllier in 2002

[kingfunk]

The Summer.

Rafa's transfer market business was absolutely ****ing ****. Shades of Houllier in 2002

[SimonNo7]

Regardless of why we bought him its pretty clear now that he performs best wide right when he has to support 2 strikers in the middle or a Gerrard/Torres partnership. Playing him alongside Torres can also work but clearly he can't play on his own. Sadly though Rafa keeps playing him as a lone striker because we don't have other options and he still believes it can work. Stupid really

I agree but he only performs best wide right because he doesn’t play in the position he should be with another striker. I completely agree with you that he can’t play the lone striker role. The fact we don’t have other options is because we stupidly sold a proven striker (who maybe didn’t play as well as he could for us) without getting anybody else in. Who’s fault was that?

We did buy him i as an out and out striker but from the way he's played when he's been up front this season he looks anything but a striker, he misses alot of chances.

As I said above perhaps if he had been played as an out and out striker from day one with another striker perhaps we would of seen a completely different player. Sadly Rafa has chosen to buy a striker and then try and turn him into a workhorse right winger instead of buying a creative right winger.

[Exiled_red]

I think what's costing us is too many draws which we get because we don't go out and attack trying to win games our mentality is not to get beaten. We've drawn 10 games if we'd gambled a bit more on trying to win these games we could have been better off. For example if we'd won 5 and lost 5 of those drawn games we'd be 5 points better off

[Exiled_red]

As I said above perhaps if he had been played as an out and out striker from day one with another striker perhaps we would of seen a completely different player. Sadly Rafa has chosen to buy a striker and then try and turn him into a workhorse right winger instead of buying a creative right winger.

I'm sure Rafa didn't buy he so he could convert him into a winger. He played his first season as a striker, and he was converted into a winger because he wasn't good enough as a striker.