A question about Rafa...

[elrichio86]

I thought it was because of injuries, not out of choice

[TheElephantMan]

Babel to defend his team-mates against ruffians = 9?

[cadmium]

I was thinking the other night about what has changed since last season, Alonso leaving, No extra striker bought etc etc. Then one thing occured to me....PARRY! Since he's gone our performances have gone down hill!

Bring back Coco!

[Lecter]

Pompey away. We went to the worst team in the league and played 4 defenders, 2 holding mids and an extra 2 more fullbacks. 4 ****ing full-backs we played. We sat there and let them run all over us and beat us. So so embarrasing.

5 Agger
23 Carragher
38 Dossena
8 Gerrard
22 Insua
2 Johnson
18 Kuyt
21 Leiva
20 Mascherano
25 Reina
9 Torres


Subs
12 Aurelio (68)
15 Benayoun (53)
26 Spearing (88)

[RedReet]

We didnt play 2 holding midfielders on Sunday and only managed a draw

I dont buy this changing the tactics will make us dramatically improve

Bottom line is this season the vast bulk of our players have grossly under-performed no matter what team selection /tactics have been used

We can argue all day as to whose fault that is. Some will claim its the players fault, others Rafa's. For me the blame is equal on both of them

Rafa's fundamental problems this season have stemmed from his signings imo. Johnson is too offensive at fullback and leaves the centrehalves exposed (this is a double whammy when Insua plays on the left) and Aquilani has either been injured or hasnt come up to expectation

However I expect something to come out regarding BOTH those deals in the summer which will almost mitigate those purchases. It will certainly give people food for thought in terms of managers and how they spend money that is "available" to them

Don't pay much attention these days, but this is definitely one of the better posts I've read in a while.

As for those suggesting that Gerrard should have been used in CM this year, seriously think about what you’re saying. We were practically unbeatable for near a season and a half, mainly because of the Gerrard-Torres partnership, so why would we break it up after we were so close the year before? Hindsight is ****ing great, but at the start of the season scoring goals wasn’t the problem, it was keeping clean sheets. As Lec has mentioned, most of the team for various reasons have been **** this year, but even if we could have cloned Gerrard and played him in both positions, I’d be surprised if we were any better off considering the way he’s played this year.

[Imy]

Don't pay much attention these days, but this is definitely one of the better posts I've read in a while.

As for those suggesting that Gerrard should have been used in CM this year, seriously think about what you’re saying. We were practically unbeatable for near a season and a half, mainly because of the Gerrard-Torres partnership, so why would we break it up after we were so close the year before? Hindsight is ****ing great, but at the start of the season scoring goals wasn’t the problem, it was keeping clean sheets. As Lec has mentioned, most of the team for various reasons have been **** this year, but even if we could have cloned Gerrard and played him in both positions, I’d be surprised if we were any better off considering the way he’s played this year.

The question about Gerrard (and he has pissed me off no end this season) is, is he any good as a support striker if that striker is not Torres?

Having watched him play with Kuyt, Ngog and Keane the answer is clearly no (that may be due to the fact that the three strikers mentioned are not that good!)

[RedReet]

Well, that I can't argue too much with. Maybe not so much Gerrard's fault, as opposed to the alternative main striker.

As been previously mentioned, not getting a good quality CF was Rafa's biggest mistake going into the season.

[Craig_H]

Isn't there a stat to prove Alonso never played all that many games last season....and that when we were without him we did fine in comparison ?

Mate, of all the reasons i've read why we're apparently 'no worse off' without Alonso, this is up there with the worst.

Alonso is a superb world class deep lying playmaker who can dictate the play and pull the strings. Lucas is not. No blame to Lucas, he is what he is - but he's no Alonso and few are.

If you really want to look at stats, let's look at point accumulation last season WITH Alonso and this season without.

He played 33 out of 38 league games last season, and 10 in the Champions League. So it's not true to say he 'never played all that many games', not in the slightest.

[Craig_H]

Again you could argue that its a different system

Our fullbacks are pushing on far more than they did last season

To me we could play last seasons system (without Alonso) providing we had good defensive fullbacks who werent so gung-ho

Playing a system with attacking fullbacks means we have to have an Alonso type player who has great positional sense, can nick/intercept balls and relieve some pressure off the holding midfielder and the centrehalves

One of Rafas biggest fundamental mistakes was probably being too adventurous this season. Hes compromised his system by not only changing his fullbacks but also by losing Alonso

Thats why I think his signings havent come off, Johnson should only be signed if Alonso stayed and I can only see Aquilani fitting in if you had two decent defensive fullbacks

If we played last season's system WITHOUT attacking fullbacks and also without Alonso, then we're basically only playing with two players who can either beat a man, or offer consistent attacking creativity - Torres and Gerrard. Alonso gave us the ability to dicate a game, a creative spark, the ability to get our attacks moving quickly and a supply of defence-opening and/or chance-creating passes.

[Taxi]

Having the courage and vision to take an exhausted Torres off for Ngog on the weekend. There are not many managers brave enough to do that, and he was proven right as the game changed from that very second.

[Craig_H]

Very rarely have we played that

I cant remember doing that this season

Pompey away this season, our lineup was:

Reina
Carragher
Agger
Dossena
Insua
Johnson
Mascherano
Lucas
Kuyt
Gerrard
Torres

So that's 8 defensive players and only 3 attacking players (if you count Kuyt as an out and out attacking player - with the work he's asked to put in, the defensive duties he fulfils and the amount of tracking back he does, i'm not sure i would).

And we used 3 subs - Spearing, Aurelio and Benayoun.

So out of 14 players we used that day, you could say only 4 were attacking players - and that's being generous.

[Craig_H]

Having the courage and vision to take an exhausted Torres off for Ngog on the weekend. There are not many managers brave enough to do that, and he was proven right as the game changed from that very second.

I almost bit

[banditos]

Pompey away this season, our lineup was:

Reina
Carragher
Agger
Dossena
Insua
Johnson
Mascherano
Lucas
Kuyt
Gerrard
Torres

So that's 8 defensive players and only 3 attacking players (if you count Kuyt as an out and out attacking player - with the work he's asked to put in, the defensive duties he fulfils and the amount of tracking back he does, i'm not sure i would).

And we used 3 subs - Spearing, Aurelio and Benayoun.

So out of 14 players we used that day, you could say only 4 were attacking players - and that's being generous.

If you're not gonna count Kuyt as an attacking player, you can't count Johnson as a defensive one.

[red g]

Having the courage and vision to take an exhausted Torres off for Ngog on the weekend. There are not many managers brave enough to do that, and he was proven right as the game changed from that very second.

So his inspired substition got 1 point and he was proven right?

[Taxi]

So his inspired substition got 1 point and he was proven right?

If Torres had stayed on, it could've been worse than 1 point. How many chances did Torres have compared to Ngog's 20 minutes? Had Ngog had taken his chances we could've won 3-1 and then we'd all be happy.