What is Rafa on about ?

[Morph]

Its Sami's shirt at the mo until he selects someone to replace him. He didn't replace him with Agger he rotated the three of them so we've had combos of Agger JC, Agger Hyppia and JC Hyypia which in defence is ridiculous in my view.

Why not just pick your best two centre backs when all are fit and stick with it? I still don't see why you think thats not possible.

We'll see re: Kuyt and Bellamy being his first two. I suspect we'll see them being rotated but time will tell on that one.

But why couldn't he have picked his two centre backs and (while fit) stick with them?

Okay then lets pick the holes in that, Carra has played every game bar the two he was injured in, and was rested once in a comfortable home win, that seems fine to me and obvious he is first choice CB, thats prem and CL games.

Agger came in for Carra when he was injured, for two games and partnered Hyypia which was unavoidable. Carra then passed his fitness test and took his place back in the team.

After that game when we got a royal fooking, Rafa switched Sami out for Agger, who performed well in the following 3 games. Carra was rested in the home game and in came Hyypia to partner Agger, and we did well in that match also.

Then came an important champs league game where Carra came back into the squad to partner Agger.

Now the only bad moce I can see is that Rafa then played Hyypia in the following match v Bolton and Agger started on the bench, maybe he had a slight niggle or Rafa thought Hyypia was better suited, but never the less that didn't work out.

Agger has since then been injured, so I think it's fairly safe to say Carra doesn't get rotated asside from one game he was rested in which isn't a bad thing, and Agger looked set to take over from Hyypia, but his injury has halted that move.

[Red_Polo]

Its Sami's shirt at the mo until he selects someone to replace him.

I think Agger will come back in when he's out of the sling. I think he and Carra are the first choices and will play the majority of games this season.

[alunevans]

Well if that happens then that'll be one of my gripes sorted. We need a settled defence at least.

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Hmmm well, he did buy many of them.

Crouch, Kuyt, Bellamy, Pennant, Alonso, Sissoko, Agger, Gonzales, Aurelio, Garcia are players he has no right to be frustrated with really. They are not his inheritance anymore.

I was saying that they dont seem to get what he wants them to do

[alunevans]

yup i know. just making the point that they are his players rather than inherited ones. there seem to be a few stories emanating from the camp that state that the players don't seem to be aware of what direction the boss is moving in tactically.

[Redspin]

No mate, you're getting confused. The discussion was heading in the direction of "what do you expect Rafa to do? Bollock the players and tell them they're playing ****" as if that's a ridiculous thing to do.
I was just pointing out that there is a precedent set by the longest serving most successful manager in Premiership history. There is no reason why Rafa shouldn't publically chastise the players.

Enlighten me when Ferguson last publicly lambasted his players. I genuinely can't remember a single occasion

[Tom]

Nor Mourino, nor Wenger.
Houllier did it once, right at the end......

[Redspin]

95% of the time tho mate it works. Rafa picks his team according to who we are playing, trying to highlight their weaknesses. Then its down to the players. Look at when we played PSV, we knew Kronkamp was balls so picked a team that was geared to attacking down his side. Today we picked a team to try and stifle the threat from their midfield. It worked because their was next to **** all for Rooney and Saha. Rafa can choose the tactics for the game and the players. Today it was the players that let us down. Personally Idve gone with 2 up front but the team he picked shouldve performed. We lost by determination from their players, no tactic or rotation can make a player give his all, thats down to them.

This is a very sensible post in a sea of knee-jerk reactions.

Although we lost, United created next to nothing and both goals were shocking, isolated defensive cock-ups with players criminally unmarked in the box - there was zero threat from the likes of Rooney. But our general play lacked incisiveness and we never looked like scoring ourselves. However the level of reaction in most posts on here is bordering on the hysterical: Rafa now hasn't got a clue, rotation is no good etc - although all successful teams adopt it and Rafa has been continually successful in using it with limited resources.

A lot of fans on here should chill out a bit. Let's see where we are around Christmas and then make a reasoned assessment

[alunevans]

Enlighten me when Ferguson last publicly lambasted his players. I genuinely can't remember a single occasion

he did it last january after the man city game

[Red Chilli]

he did it last january after the man city game

Beat me to it.

[Fan65]

Well if that happens then that'll be one of my gripes sorted. We need a settled defence at least.

Bit harsh on Hyppia, against Bordeaux he was MOM and played as well as anyone yesterday. I can't see that Agger would have improved the defensive performance much either.

The team was basically the same played 4 weeks ago apart from two enforced replacements from the team that beat Spurs 3-0 , instead of Carragher read Agger and Bellamy for Garcia(amazingly he didn't start this one)

I know Spurs aren't Manu but the team played well enough to score 3.

I put our current bad form down to a run of very unlucky results ( bolton, blackburn) leading to a lack of confidence by some of the players who need to show they are worthy of a place in the team, i.e Gonzalez , he was playing well early on yesterday but paniced everytime he got sight of goal. He wants to succeed but needs to settle down, The whole team seem edgy like they know how there underperforming and just need to get a few results going.

[Morph]

Disagree that Hyypia played as well as anyone, he was responsible for starting half of their attacks. Agers distribution and bringing the ball out of defense would have helped us no one yesterday.

[alunevans]

Bit harsh on Hyppia, against Bordeaux he was MOM and played as well as anyone yesterday. I can't see that Agger would have improved the defensive performance much either.

Sorry you've misunderstood the nature of my gripe. My gripe isn't Hyypia. My gripe is rotating the centre halves. Morph said that he reckons it'll be Carra Agger as a settled centre back pairing and I said if that happens (the settled pairing) that it'll sort one of my gripes.

I wasn't saying who the pairing should be. I think we have 3 very good centre backs. I was saying that I don't want our centre backs rotated about.

If it was Hyppia Carra rather than Agger Carra then it would sort that gripe out just the same.

[alunevans]

I put our current bad form down to a run of very unlucky results ( bolton, blackburn)

Hmmmm. Blackburn certainly wasn't an unlucky result. We were abysmal first half and I'm talking workrate not technique. We played for no more than half an hour. Thats why we didn't win, it wasn't down to bad luck.

[Fan65]

Hmmmm. Blackburn certainly wasn't an unlucky result. We were abysmal first half and I'm talking workrate not technique. We played for no more than half an hour. Thats why we didn't win, it wasn't down to bad luck.

Fair comment but Blackburn were hanging on at the end, I just think we have been playing better than the results show, yesterdays result excepted of course.

A settled team may be the answer but with so many new faces to fit in and with the injuries we've had it hasn't given Rafa a chance to keep a usual starting eleven. i.e 4 strikers but he's never had an opportunity to pick from all of them.