Braga post-match

[Lecter]

Of course not I wouldn't dare say anything against the totally infallible Rafa...







Psst... over here, while certain people aren't looking... Ok, yes I was sort of suggesting that some of our static players may be down to Rafa, he purchased them after all - I believe. Also I may be suggesting that some of our players, bought by Rafa, are shot and became shot after the season we finished second and should of been moved on. Why they are still here, I have no idea. Oh yeah and this is only my own personal opinion though and am only suggesting it as a view point and not saying it is gospel.

Hard to argue with that

[The Erectile Banana]

I really don't think that having more attacking players in the team necessarily equates to being more effective in attack. It's not just about who is in the middle but who you can put out wide and Cole's decision making is rubbish and Maxi is not proactive enough in my opinion to balance him. We have the sort of players whose job needs to be made easy - ideally by winning the midfield battle and having options to move the ball out of defense quickly.

That's true, but in a side that is lacking in creativity I would rather have a player who is capable of it, and who, in spite of generally being as effective as a sponge bullet, has the ability to produce a piece of magic, than a Championship level plodder like Spearing.

I agree that there's an arguement to be made re Spearing offering us a better balance, but even if he had played instead of Maxi or Cole I think we'd have had the same outcome.

[Shaggy]

[Rudo]

^^^

WTF is that

[alunevans]

To be fair, we've got Stevie injured and Luis cup tied. Stevie and Luis are important players. Had they played, we would have got through.

Squad is not the best but it's good enough to have a shot at 4th. We're down to where we are now because of Roy Hodgson.

As ever though we're reliant on two players. Stevie and Torres/Suarez.

[Rudo]

As ever though we're reliant on two players. Stevie and Torres/Suarez.

We're not even reliant on Gerrard anymore because he's been poor in the last two seasons.

[Mostar]

He has not be as good as we got accustomed to but he is still one of best in the world in his position and one of the few we have that single-handedly can influence the game outcome.

[alunevans]

I'd still like to see Johnson right midfield. He's probably the best wide attacking player we have (which says a lot for the squad).

I know Kelly is out at the mo, but when he's back I'd go for Kelly RB and Johnson RM.

Sorry state of affairs really.

[Fredo]

We're not even reliant on Gerrard anymore because he's been poor in the last two seasons.

Another one of your pertly posts, you just can't help it.

[Rudo]

Another one of your pertly posts, you just can't help it.

Am i wide of the mark in this instance?

[Arn]

Of course not I wouldn't dare say anything against the totally infallible Rafa...







Psst... over here, while certain people aren't looking... Ok, yes I was sort of suggesting that some of our static players may be down to Rafa, he purchased them after all - I believe. Also I may be suggesting that some of our players, bought by Rafa, are shot and became shot after the season we finished second and should of been moved on. Why they are still here, I have no idea. Oh yeah and this is only my own personal opinion though and am only suggesting it as a view point and not saying it is gospel.

It is very easy to figure out why Rafa didn't sell a few of the players we needed to sell. What would have happened if he did that? The answer is that the money would have gone to pay the interest and not on replacements.

That would have left us with a much weaker squad. In the end Rafa had no other choice than to keep players we needed to sell.

That is how bad the situation was. We couldn't even sell players we needed to sell.

Only hours away from administration and owners that fought hard to take us there. Owners that didn't care a bit about the club or if we won games.

What did they care about? Money. Nothing else really. They pissed on the club for years. In the history of the PL then you could probably only find two teams with as **** owners, Leeds and Portsmouth. Look at what happened to them.....

We laughed for years at Newcastle until we became an ever bigger laughing stock. We was the big joke out there. Other supporters laughed at our situation and you could understand why.

We fans could just cry and hope. Only hours away from administration.

[Arn]

Then some people wonder why players like Torres, Mascherano, Arbeloa and Xabi left. They saw what was going on and decided to leave a club with no chance to compete at the top in the near future. I would have done the same in their situation. They couldn't wait years and waste their best years playing for us.

It will take years to build up the club again even if we spend spend spend.

We won't be back at the top again until the Academy produce players year in year out, we got a new stadium and have spent a lot of money.

That will as I said that a few years.

[SimonNo7]

It is very easy to figure out why Rafa didn't sell a few of the players we needed to sell. What would have happened if he did that? The answer is that the money would have gone to pay the interest and not on replacements.

That would have left us with a much weaker squad. In the end Rafa had no other choice than to keep players we needed to sell.

That is how bad the situation was. We couldn't even sell players we needed to sell.

Only hours away from administration and owners that fought hard to take us there. Owners that didn't care a bit about the club or if we won games.

What did they care about? Money. Nothing else really. They pissed on the club for years. In the history of the PL then you could probably only find two teams with as **** owners, Leeds and Portsmouth. Look at what happened to them.....

We laughed for years at Newcastle until we became an ever bigger laughing stock. We was the big joke out there. Other supporters laughed at our situation and you could understand why.

We fans could just cry and hope. Only hours away from administration.

But Rafa brought these players in as well. He brought in the players without flair that are still here.

Of course the biggest problem was caused by H&G but Rafa still has to shoulder the blame for some of the dross that wears our shirt.

I also don't think that all the money from players sold would of gone to pay interest. He would of been able to buy replacements, however if he made a profit then that profit would of gone to pay interest. What he wouldn't of been able to do was spend more money than he made. We saw that in his last few transfer windows where he was allowed to sell and then buy but not spend more than he made.

[SimonNo7]

Then some people wonder why players like Torres, Mascherano, Arbeloa and Xabi left. They saw what was going on and decided to leave a club with no chance to compete at the top in the near future. I would have done the same in their situation. They couldn't wait years and waste their best years playing for us.

It will take years to build up the club again even if we spend spend spend.

We won't be back at the top again until the Academy produce players year in year out, we got a new stadium and have spent a lot of money.

That will as I said that a few years.

But didn't Arbeloa leave because he wanted to go back to Spain and didn't want to sign a new contract?

Didn't Alonso leave because of the Barry affair?

And didn't Mascha leave because his family weren't happy in England?

Torres, fair enough left because he didn't think the club would get back to where he wanted to be quick enough.

None of them, apart from Torres, as far as I am aware, left the club because of the state of it. Arbeloa and Alonso left just after we had finished 2nd, hardly a club that wasn't able to compete at the top.

You could argue that we didn't need to buy anyone after we finished 2nd apart from maybe squad players to make the overall squad better. The team that played so well that year should of got better the following year as they should of had a better understanding of what Rafa wanted from them and should of been an even stronger team/squad.

[dww]

That's true, but in a side that is lacking in creativity I would rather have a player who is capable of it, and who, in spite of generally being as effective as a sponge bullet, has the ability to produce a piece of magic, than a Championship level plodder like Spearing.

I agree that there's an arguement to be made re Spearing offering us a better balance, but even if he had played instead of Maxi or Cole I think we'd have had the same outcome.

Fair enough - I don't think it is clear cut. I just feel that sustained pressure often reduces the need for the sort of spark you talk off. A lot of the games we won under Rafa were won by wearing teams down because tactically we were set up to keep the ball in areas where opposition mistakes would be costly. Braga weren't a great side and I think that strategy would have worked quite well.

We had a good start but it seemed to drain us - in order to work we needed a frenetic pace to the game. When it slowed down our lack of creativity was exposed - I'd suggest given the players available minimising the required level of creativity to be dangerous was the order of the day.

I guess in the end the main thing to take from the game was that we don't have the squad at the minute to find the way to beat a wide range of sides and we need to change that in the summer.