Rafa this season

[Howard_lfc]

We all know that the players aren't performing this season - but what about our beloved Rafa. I'm a huge fan of his - but I have to question his 'performance' this season. If I were rating him out of 10 - I'd honestly only give him a 5 ( 6 at a push ) What about you?

[kurtangle01]

There is a lot of negativity surrounding the club at the moment, and rightly so, and this seems to have got to the players and the coaching staff. Hopefully he can turn things round a.s.a.p.

You learn more about people when your backs are against the wall and Rafa has pulled through before. Lets hope he can do it again.

[SouthAfricaRed]

We all know that the players aren't performing this season - but what about our beloved Rafa. I'm a huge fan of his - but I have to question his 'performance' this season. If I were rating him out of 10 - I'd honestly only give him a 5 ( 6 at a push ) What about you?

What would your rating have been at this stage in the 2004/2005 season and the 2005/2006 season?

Did the rating change at the end of the season?

Bottom line - You cant judge a manager in November. Only at the end of the season, when you have played all sides home and away can you judge a season or a manager

[Howard_lfc]

Bottom line - You cant judge a manager in November.

who says? what if we'd lost every game of the season so far? Would we be in a position to judge then? Or should we wait until we're relegated and then judge him?
I don't for one minute think we'll get relegated I'm making the point that we can judge a manager in November - just as we're judging a player (pennant) in November.

As with most opinions - you can only base it on the facts you have before you - not ones which you may have at your disposal by the end of May.

My judgement is based on what I've seen this season - so far. I thought I'd made that quite clear.

[SouthAfricaRed]

who says? what if we'd lost every game of the season so far? Would we be in a position to judge then? Or should we wait until we're relegated and then judge him?
I don't for one minute think we'll get relegated I'm making the point that we can judge a manager in November - just as we're judging a player (pennant) in November.

As with most opinions - you can only base it on the facts you have before you - not ones which you may have at your disposal by the end of May.

My judgement is based on what I've seen this season - so far. I thought I'd made that quite clear.

Answer my first two questions first?

I agree You cant judge Pennant or any other player now either

An opinion based on limited info is a limited opinion. That was my point. I didnt say you couldnt have one. I only pointed out that it's not worth much at this stage of the season

[dww]

I'm not sure that you can judge a managers ability by November, I do however think it is reasonable to assess how well he has done so far. We would do it with players and I don't see why we shouldn't with the manager.

I think we have gone into another transitional phase. We have bought in a lot of new players and have also at various points tried to evolve the team setup from the way we played last year. So far of the new players only Kuyt has settled in.

I think that early in the season Rafa made some brave gambles, trying to add width to our play by playing Pennant and introducing Bellamy to the attack and trying to engender a more short passing game with selections such as Fowler and Bellamy up front against Sheffield United. However so far this season we have failed to add real atacking width and have lost the defensive stability we had last season.

I don't think it has been rotation per se, but I do think Rafa has put Aurelio into the defence to early. He wasn't used the PL and he didn't seem to understand our defensive system. Early in the season we needed to have a stable base and introducing Aurelio seemed to have a negative effect. We did have a couple of injurie but I think Rafa should have used Warnock more - he isn't great but at least he has played with the other members of the back 4 more regularly. I think the lack of continuity at the back this season has been a big factor in our poor form - but ther injuries we suffered means it is not all Rafas fault.

His substitutions have had less effect than they have done at times in the past. Not sure why but it counts against him.

We have endured one and a half matches of spineless crap at Man Utd and Arsenal, which is a bad point.

Despite all the criticism I think Rafa has done most of the right things and despite poor results the players still seem behind him. Also we have played some good football - including the game at Chelsea and the first half of the Galatasaray which have shown that we are attempting to evolve the team. The problem is at a big club like LFC you can't afford transition phases and we have already had one under Rafa in his first season and were lucky to get back into the CL.

Another plus has been our quick and assured progress in the CL group stage.

I think so far this season I would give Rafa a 5. I will however say that if by the end of the season all of the new players have found their feet and we have a fast paced team with width and we finish 3rd or 4th and do well in the CL then I will retroactively raise it to a 6 as he will have used this time well to integrate them and his choices to give opportunities to Gonzalez and Pennant when they haven't been in great form will have been vindicated.

[Howard_lfc]

I'm not sure that you can judge a managers ability by November

I do wish people would read what I've written.

I am judging Rafa's performance THIS SEASON - SO FAR. Just like we say "Stevie isn't playing well this season" etc etc etc.......

Not the previous 2 seasons he's been here.

Not a judgment on the whole of the season - because we haven't had it!

A judgement based on his performance THIS SEASON - SO FAR !

why is that too hard for people to understand?

[Red Chilli]

This season so far? Below average so that equates to 4 out of 10

[dww]

I do wish people would read what I've written.

I am judging Rafa's performance THIS SEASON - SO FAR. Just like we say "Stevie isn't playing well this season" etc etc etc.......

Not the previous 2 seasons he's been here.

Not a judgment on the whole of the season - because we haven't had it!

A judgement based on his performance THIS SEASON - SO FAR !

why is that too hard for people to understand?

I actually intended that comment to be in agreement with you. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

[Howard_lfc]

I actually intended that comment to be in agreement with you. Sorry I wasn't more clear.

Sorry to have a go at you dww - you know I regard your views highly mate.

I see you too rate Rafa as a 5 so far.

[Red_Polo]

I rated him 4 for the season so far.

[anfieldanfield]

I rated him 4 for the season so far.

Yep, '3' or '4' for me.

Anything more is nonsense.

[Bob]

I rated him 5, because there's loadsa time to turn things spectacularly around. EDIT - and i'm sure he's working hard to rectify the situation, sometimes a bit of luck is needed in this game to spark confidence.

I based the 'five' on my opinion of his team selections, tactics, and last but not least his post match analysis's to the press (how piss-poor was yesterdays). The first two criteria i've stop berating on here, as people put me in some 'Rafa out' category, and i got tired of defending my objectiveness.

[Red_Polo]

I rated him 5, because there's loadsa time to turn things spectacularly around.

So his rating so far would be less than 5 iyo as in mine? I do think it's well justified. We had good reason to expect much this season and we have been forced to endure some absolutely shocking 'team' performances to a level nobody could possibly have predicted. We're even dying for Kewell to come back :|

[Bob]

So his rating so far would be less than 5 iyo as in mine? I do think it's well justified. We had good reason to expect much this season and we have been forced to endure some absolutely shocking 'team' performances to a level nobody could possibly have predicted. We're even dying for Kewell to come back :|

It's too depressing! I'm therefore not going to argue over some arbitrary scale

'Not nearly good enough' is the bottom line!

EDIT - who voted 8 - FLMAO