Benitez's substitution policy

[Joe King]

In what was meant to be a game changing substitution for Manchester United, turned out to be one which spelled the end of United's reign as champions of Europe.

At half time, Carlos Tevez came on for one of Brazilian's brightest midfielders, so we were meant to think. If you are losing one-zip in a final at half time, that decision is at most called brave. Sure, bringing off a midfielder for a striker against Wigan might work but against Barcelona, that says something about the manager's decision making.

What the change did do was to give Barcelona even more space in the centre of midfield and allow Iniesta et al, to create even more havoc. What the game didn't need, in United's case, was for it to become stretched, which is what inevitably happened with the very anonymous Ryan Giggs and the deplorable Michael Carrick standing in no mans land.

The long and cheerful tangent brings me to one of the clubs most emotional nights. Istanbul on the 25th May 2005. Half time, three nil down to the best club side in the world, Benitez is forced to make a change. Andy Gray seemed besumed, which would assume that Benitez is wrong, of course. Dietmar Hamann, a cult hero in his own right cemented himself into Anfield folklore.

Brought in to stop the runs and wizardry of the human magician, Ricardo Kaka, Hamann's positioning allowed Gerrard to roam free and cause trouble to a very aging and vulnerable defence.

For whatever criticisms you have of Benitez, simply put, his substitution policy can have a good effect on the team especially this season where the team have scored twenty one goals in the last ten minutes of a game. Mixed with a never say die attitude and a stronger bench next season, Benitez could create a season which could surpass the great memories of Istanbul.

[Mike]

Benitez could create a season which could surpass the great memories of Istanbul.

I wouldnt say that, Istanbul is very, very special.

Having said that, the late goals have become increasingly more frequent and is part of a league winning team.

The foundations for a title winning side are there, we need one or two more attacking threats to grind out results against teams that are willing to park themselves with 11 men behind the ball; once that is sorted the league is ours.

[Maz]

Great Post.

[Shanks]

If you are losing one-zip in a final at half time.

1-ZIP...

[Guest]

Great Post.

He didn't write it.

[Darth Marty]

Thats decent, I guess most people would think if your chasing a game youd bring in a striker or attacking player, like fergie did, hamann well **** me that was an inspired sub and just goes to show how much work rafa puts into his game, we are lucky he is with us because Rafas knowledge of the game is awesome and really we shouldnt second guess hi as much as we do. In general hes normally bloody right eh.

[rudedog]

Fergusons subs in our last game against them were also ****e - If memory serves, he made a triple subsitution about a minute before Vidic got sent off

[DannyMan2006]

He didn't write it.

But he did post it.............

[Joe King]

But he did post it.............

I wrote it, I usually would put the source if it was nicked from elsewhere.

[wiw]

I think if you're comparing the two, they obviously just see the game differently. An attacker for a midfielder is a pretty typical Ferguson sub when they're up against it, whereas Rafa's tend to be a little more subtle than that, maybe changing the personnel in the wide areas rather than actually changing the shape. He very very rarely empties the midfield or really goes for it (what was the home game early on where Riera played kind of LWB and Dirk the same on the right near the end?)

One thing that stuck in my head was a player talking about Rafa's tactical predictions. Can't remember who it was sadly, but he said he will pretty much predict how the 90 minutes will go; how the opposition will play, how Liverpool will play etc and that the subs are planned. Despite the planned nature of them though, they're more often than not exactly what we need without most of us even realising it

There was also that stat not so long ago about the subs he's brought on and their scoring records, which pretty much buried the argument about whether his subs are good or not. We don't always agree with them or the timing of them (Crouch in the CL final being the most obvious one) but he's ****ing brilliant at it most of the time

[ric.williams]

do you mean the wigan game at anfield?

[Catrin]

When I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing now.

[Ataturk]

its a lot of words to make a small and pretty obvious point. are you paul tomkins?

[DannyMan2006]

its a lot of words to make a small and pretty obvious point. are you paul tomkins?

When I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing now.When I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing nowWhen I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing nowWhen I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing nowWhen I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing nowWhen I watched the game I thought that we would have done better against Barca. Most of the players have worked for Rafa for at least a couple of years and have become quite tactically aware. With a weakened defence Barca had to keep the ball in order to prevent United from putting them under pressure. United didn't seem to realise that and carried on giving the ball away and being made to work harder and harder to get it back. I'm not saying that we are much better than them at keeping the ball but we do adapt our tactics during the game so we would at least have tried something else. United just plodded on. They wouldn't have beaten Barca if they were still playing now

That's more like it

[Ataturk]

i was talking about the original post