Liverpool FC Forum

stu_the_red wrote:The mix of players we have now is completely different thats why. We lack Valencia's quality in wide area's and tactically Albelda and Baraja are a superior partnership to Gerrard and Albelda.

Tiiger wrote:This is the tactic Rafa used to achieve the double:

                        Canizares

Aurelio     Pellegrino       Machena        Carboni



              Baraja            Albelda


Rufate                 Aimar                 Vicente


                          Mista

How similar it is to our current formation. But why we can't work it out in EPL?

Rafa, please sort it out. 

How could you miss out the FABULOUS Ayala

That Valencia team you mention is an awesome team, they had MUCH better quality in their first team and on the bench than we do, it’s just the hard reality I'm afraid….

I remember Rafa's reign at Valencia and how impressive it was....I used to watch them A LOT!

You have also made other important omissions that where fundamental to Rafa's success during his stunning 3 year reign at the Mestalla.

Carew
Curro Torres
Angulo
Salva
Juan Sánchez
Sissoko
Oliveira
David Navarro
De Lo Santos
Kily González

All played an extremely important part of the success in those 3 years (obviously not all of them had been there for those 3 years).

Lets look at the more regular players from the first team....

Lets start with their wingers, especially Vicente….boy is he GOOD, and I mean REALLY WORLD CLASS GOOD....

Rufete was also a good winger, skilful, good crosser, lacks pace but....Angulo too was a good and pacy winger, sometimes playing the role of 2nd striker and was damn effective....

Cañizares in goal was AWESOME, very commanding, great all-rounder and commanded his defence and area with GREAT authority.

Ayala, Pellegrino and Marchena regardless of who started where one of the best defensive units in Europe, I’m pretty sure of that….

Carboni, though in his late 30's when Rafa was in charge, was tremendous too….running up and down the left flank like an 18 year old....and how impressive he was…

Torres and Aurelio where very reliable right backs, especially Torres, even though he suffered from a big injury….I think that was during the 2002 – 2003 campaign….

The pairing of Albelda and Baraja was one of the best defensive midfield pairings in Europe. Baraja used to surge forward from defensive duties and scored some VERY crucial goals, while Albelda marshalled the defensive side of the midfield so well. They where machines, almost everything they done was perfect….

And now we come to that little genius Aimar....At the time he was simply one of the most creative and skilful players in the world....

Rafa had a lot of strikers during his reign, and all of them played their part thought NON of them scored lots of goals, even the little known Xisco done quite well....Mista played the biggest part of the 2004 campaign, but previously, Carew, Salva, Juan Sánchez etc all played well under Rafa….

Rafa’s strikers have never ever been world class, nor have they ever been 20 goal a season men, but the part they played acn not be understated....And anyway, Rafa's Valencia side never EVER fully relied on goals coming from the strikers, as he constructed the team to score many goals from the wings and midfield players….

And after all of that....Basically what I am trying to say is:

We are quite far away from having the quality of that Valencia side....I have the feeling the building of this Liverpool side under rafa will take perhaps 2 - 3 years, and I think he knows that too....

It would be impossible to ask Rafa to replicate what he did with the previous Valencia side with this current Liverpool team....The quality just isn't there at the moment. But we are certainly going in the right direction....

Cheers.

Santa wrote:very good analysis L4EVA. We definately lack the creativity of Aimar in the middle of the park and the wing play of Vicente on our team now, and don't forget La Liga emphasise more on skills whereas Premiership relies more on the physical aspect of the game

Thanks mate    Yes La Primera is definitely a league where the spectacular is all important....In Spain I hear people say....Even if you win 5 - 0, it's not good enough if you didn't do it with style....