by JC_81 » Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:03 pm
The team is more than the sum of its parts, and when you have that then you know you have a good manager.
You look at our team sheet and it doesn't look as strong man for man as a lot of our top 4 rivals, yet we are scoring for fun and blowing teams away recently.
He's good at managing players and is a throwback to the days when a manager stuck with you until you had a bad game, then you're out and it's someone else's shirt. He's been doing that all season and it's getting an extra 10% out of some players that competition for places. Skrtel, Sakho, Allen, Sterling and Flanagan have sat on the bench for periods and waited for their chance. You could see the togetherness in the team when Flanagan scored and I think making Suarez captain was a great move.
His signings have been hit and miss, but overall no worse than the managers of the other top sides recently, everyone is finding there's little value in the transfer market. Coutinho and Sturridge were great buys. Sakho, Toure and Mignolet solid signings.
He is a pragmatic manager who was willing to sacrifice the style of play for results when we needed it. Now we're getting the results with the style. He's no one trick pony and so far under him we've played 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-5-2 and more. We've played counter or we've played possession. We've sat deep or we've pressed.
He's also managed Suarez brilliantly and dispatched of the likes of Carroll, Downing and Adam without fuss. He showed he had balls too with the Reina situation.
He's good with the press and although he talks a bit much for some fans' liking (including me), he's diplomatic and never gives the press and excuse to get on our back with moody post-match interviews or excuses. This benefits the team and results in the long term.
Overall good manager. Still early days and still a lot of work to be done, but I think he's capable of breaking top four and making us regulars in the CL again.
alonso 
