off, thats for another day. Today, and the next couple of weeks is about benitez and who we replace him with?As fans, the majority didnt blame the owners for coming second. Yet, as soon as we play poorly, ON THE PITCH! Its the boardrooms fault. Thats nonsense. Rafa has to take the blame for all our performances on the pitch. The buck stops at him. It was rafa who, persisted with a lucas/masch midfield. A preference to isolate our striker up front. Continue to try to get babel as a left sided winger. Messing about with footballers heads. ( not very hard granted). He isolated riera, benayoun and alonso last season.
Continued with his 66 min substitutions. Never ever got a replacement for torres when injured. Selling Arbeloa for 3m was a grave mistake. Replacing him with a 17m full back that upset the balance of our defence was a poor choice. Johnson is a good player, however, for a player to be able to overlap, a defensive mid has to drop in periodically.
He mis-manged Keane, Alonso, bellamy etc.
The thing in football is sometimes, no matter how good a boss you are, you can become blinded by certain things. Therefore, you can lose direction. Houllier did it after heart scare. Rafa did it, but probably a little slower.
He's a top class coach, but not a top class manager. Certain mangers/coaches need a number two. Rafa originally had paco, not won anything since he left him. He brought in yes men around him. Lee, Pelligrino etc.
Cloughy had a shocker without taylor, brought him onboard and success again. Also, if footballers dont want to play for the manager, then there really is nothing you can do. From park pitches to prem pitches, regardless of being professional or not. They wont play for you! There is the crux.
Ramos lost the players, harry came in and results improved dramatically, even before the transfer window. Sammy had it at Bolton Certain players wouldnt even speak to him! Im afraid the footballers have the power now. Blame Hill for that.
Back on track, whether you are pro or anti, im neither to be honest. I dont hate rafa, however, i feel his methods aren't suited for domestic football here. I really think this could help us out in regards to new ownership, keeping players and ultimately changing our style of play. Be honest with yourselves, our current squad is capable of getting fourth easily. You add one or two players and we capable of getting close to 2nd and 3rd. I mean, add another striker and a freebie (fee wise) like joe cole and you have a squad that is very good.
Look at it: Reina, cavalleri, johnson, kelly, carragher, agger, soto, skrtel, insua, riera, gerrard, mascherano, lucas, babel, yossi, kuyt, pacheco, torres, aquilanni, shelvey, maxi, sterling, jovanovic and whoever else we get?
Is that such a bad squad?
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