Madmax wrote:What i would like to know is how come rafa loves to field a lone striker? When torres is injured what is wrong with reverting back to the traditional 4-4-2..
With the absence of two key players we should have stuck to a defensive set-up the players are familiar with and perhaps changed to two up front. Problem is Rafa kept two out of form player in Skrtel and Carra in the side, brought back Agger who hasn't played for us since whenever and then decides to top that all off with giving Spearing a chance as well as Babel. With so many out of form players in a formation I doubt one of them would have voted to play three at the back, perhaps exception being whichever CB might have otherwise missed out.
We should have played what experienced players were available, choosing those in best form. That said, Rafa was on his heels in response to the poor play and didn't change anything until too late - late even by his standards.
It was a shambles, first goal Rafa has conceded against Sunderland aside, we never looked like winning it. I guess people can trot out all the usual lines about no money from the owners, playing X games out of Y away from home, the international break and injured players, blah, blah, blah, but the fact remains that is the hand the MANAGER is dealt. We can't say "well we'll win the league, but only if Gerrard and Torres play 95% of the games and we have no serious injuries, and decisions go our way, and, and, and..................." (sh) It happens, you lose players to injuries and the timing, as it goes, wasn't that bad. Better to have Sunderland than Chelsea or Man Utd. Problem was Rafa is increasingly looking not up to it, he's failing the three parts of strategy that he needs to pass - signings, system and substitutions.
Signings - because, to use a neat analogy, he had £40 to spend and went to the nearest posh resturaunt bought a soup starter for £17.50, bought a nice sounding main course for £20 that wouldn't be ready for three hours and then nipped out and bought a hot dog from a van outside for £1.50. Point being, if you don't have the money to eat in the fancy restaurant so that you can fill your stomach, then you eat somewhere you can afford or make sure at least what you buy serves the purpose.
System - with no Alonso playing 4-3-3 come 4-5-1 is not really working, changing it when you've lost two key players and are leaving out a third is plain daft. And zonal marking is another element just begging to be doubted
Substitutions - maybe some believe all this F1 tyres cobblers or waiting until the players have had time for half-time to take effect, but the bottom line is you need to react and change things when they need changing. If three at the back and the game in general isn't going right, then change it FFS.
Even then you have to wonder if the first set of changes wasn't what should have been the starting set-up, but quite how players are to make their mark or make a difference in 15-25 minutes is something perhaps Rafa can answer. Cue someone to show who scored as a sub, even if most of them were scored when we were 3-0, 4-0, 5-0 or on our way to 8-0 rather than losing. If this has worked this season then tell me now, because we failed to score against Fiorentina, Chelsea and now Sunderland so the subs didn't score then, and we only scored one in each of the other two defeats so those games weren't saved either. In essence it is when you need to turn things around that substitution timings can be key, if you're playing well and it's level then it's not so vital, but if you are behind then to win you need to score TWICE not once, therefore you need enough time to comfortably score twice and let's face it, if you ain't scored in 66-72 minutes, what hope of scoring twice in 18-25 ?!?!? (especially given the quality of some of our subs)
In the words of Lennon, 'all we are saying, is give subs a chance.................................."
There is a case for a replay, but perhaps it's not worth going there. It further exposes how poor the referees are, this time in terms of knowledge of the rules they are there to enforce. Sure it is an obscure rule, not something you'd expect to happen in most games, but if they are paid to do the job at the highest level then they should damn well know them. Like top quizzers, they research all possible questions as much as they can because they can't rely on only having to know the commonest questions. Knowing the answer is "Pickles" isn't enough, they need to know the date he became famous, his DOB, his mum and dad's name, what other bitches he f*cked and even the colour of his turds.
Now every man and his dog knows what SHOULD happen, too f in late and now we all know what the man who should have known didn't at the time.
too, who they also take some of the blame for allowing this weird manager to be left in charge for so long. I just simply ask his faithful what kind of achievement that Rafa had brought to the club since he had been in charge, the European champion cup, well he won it with most of G. Houlier’s team, (who was another negative manager).
VERSUS 
