Liverpool FC Forum

by **Scottbot** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:52 am

RUSHIE#9 wrote:Reading the Echo tonight and the excellent Chris Bascobe reported that Rafa was in a complete rage with the attitude of his squad and called an emergency summit on Sunday (their rest day i presume) at Melwood so they could sit through the 45 minute horror show of the 1st half at fulham. IMO this has to be taken as a positive step for us 'cos it DOES show that in private Rafa is not happy no matter what he says in public with the way the lads are performing (or maybe that should read not performing).

Yeah it's good to see the manager give the players a bit of a roasting. His comments have made most of the back pages this morning although i would imagine that he had stronger words for the players in private. Hopefully they will respond with blood and thunder performances tonight and aginast the Hammers at the weekend.

by **louie garthie** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 12:17 pm

Make every effort to play a settled first 11 consistently.Making changes only on occassion due to injury.To change 5/6 players for each game can only harm any attempt to create any stability and can't help the players form any kind of understanding.

by **wrighty (not mark!)** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 12:44 pm

If you underperform, your out of the team and replaced by a top reserve player that has been recommended. The young player will play out of his skin and the senior player (assuming his attitide is right) will fight hard to get back in the line-up. If not, he obviously has the wrong attitude to play for LFC.

Pretty much the the 70's philosophy in which, if the side has won the last game, the side stays the same until they lose. THEN mix it up.

by **stmichael** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:44 pm

louie garthie wrote:Make every effort to play a settled first 11 consistently.Making changes only on occassion due to injury.To change 5/6 players for each game can only harm any attempt to create any stability and can't help the players form any kind of understanding.

exactly.

my rotation policy would be if any of our terrible "squad" players look like getting on the team coach they should rotate themselves around and go right back where they came from.

by **LFC #1** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 2:00 pm

BENITEZ: ATTITUDE NEEDS TO BE A LOT BETTER

Steve Hunter 25 October 2005

Rafael Benitez has questioned the attitude of his players and says he will not tolerate another performance like the first half at Fulham on Saturday.
Benitez was livid with his side's first half performance at Craven Cottage and has demanded an instant improvement.

Benitez said: "Everyone must understand these kind of games are important. It's acceptable to play at the same level as Chelsea and lose, but it's not acceptable to play Fulham, who we know we are better than, and lose.

"It was as though we didn't understand the importance of the game in the first half. We didn't approach the game with the right attitude.

"Our attack has been bad because the players up front are not moving enough. We have the ball and we are creating opportunities, but the problem is we are not taking them.

"I am disappointed with the team and when I say that I mean all the staff, not just the players. We have been talking about last season when we played badly away. We need to realise that if you win against teams like Fulham, then normally you will be at the top of the table and you will have confidence.

"If you play against Chelsea at a very good level and you play against Anderlecht at a very good level, then you need to approach the game against Fulham with the same attitude. Maybe as staff we can prepare better by stressing how important the game is so that the players understand.

"If we want to be consistent, then we must have the same attitude in all the games – the Premiership, the Carling Cup and the Champions League. We all know we need to change the attitude, particularly after European games. We spoke and watched the match again on Sunday because sometimes you can see things clearer on the video.

"The performance was bad in terms of the aggressiveness of the players. We had a lot of the ball and we controlled the play, but did not show enough until the second half. We've had these problems before after a Champions League game.

"We have all seen the big mistake we made with our first half performance and now we need to correct it. When people talk about the disappointment of the fans we are all disappointed and we know we need to improve."

by **TheoRacle** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:23 am

Wasn't sure which thread to put this is there's so many!

To clarify, I am a fan of Rafa and as I have said in other topics I am generally optomistic about the way the team is playing - we get lots of posession and creat plenty of chances, but as I have alos said we fail to capatilise on them.

By way of elaboration and to get a few things off my chest...

It was said when Crouch first signed that he offers no more than Mori - IMO much less - so why spend 7 million on him?

If Rafa has made only one mistake this season then signing Crouch is surely it. Before I get hammered as a member of the "We hate Crouchy" brigade, this is not an attack on his ability but a question of what extra dimension he really brings to the team.

If Rafa's plan was to create a target for wide men to cross to, get the knock down and score or the target man to score directly all well and good, but surely you would make sure you had the wide men in place before you bought the target man or else the plan falls in a pile of poo as we have seen so far this season (besides we already had a more than decent target man in Mori when in form).

If you have good wide men but no 'giant' target it's no big deal - goals come from width whoever your centre forward is. It seems to me that Rafa's gamble on 'Crouch being good enough to benefit the team should the required top shelf service from the wings not materialise' has simply not paid off.

So - Rafa blows 7 mill on Crouch instead of securing (with an actual signature on the dotted line!) a decent right winger. He then helps create a situation where Cisse is pi$$ed off about the Owen deal. Sure, not entirely his fault but if he hadn't bought Crouch until we'd signed a winger he would have had the funds to buy Owen (not saying that he neccesarily wanted to) without rumours about needing to offload Cisse. Now we find ourselves with a strike force that for one reason or another has not been able to find the back of the net.

What I would have liked to have seen is Rafa get that right winger first and demand that Morientes stand up and deliver the charismatic performances we know he can deliver. The kind where he scares the sh.t out of defences and leads from the front. Keep the 7 mill up your sleeve or hell - why not even buy some reinforcements at the back?

We'd then have a leader at the back in Carra, a leader in the center in Stevie and Morientes inspiring the less experienced lads like Pongo and even Cisse up front.

And what is all this :censored:

about "half the team is not Rafa's - give him a chance to get the personel he wants"? Not withstanding my comments about getting a rightwinger above - we simply dont have anyone now - this smacks awfully of the management Chelski style; i.e don't worry about having any coaching skills just go out and buy a team. What happened to getting the best out of what you've got? For instance, no one could dismiss Cisse as :censored:

at the start of the season, he'd just expressed obvious desire to play for Liverpool having worked his ar.se off to get back from injury early and as top goal scorer at Auxerre and in our UEFA qualifying campaign, he arguably has the talent - yet Crouch gets the nod time and time again over Cisse. Is this arrogance, stubborness or something else?

So in summary, Rafa's supplemented the team he inherited very well by securing Alonso, Reina, Sissoko, Morientes, Garcia (whose creative flair offsets his loss of possession problem) and to a lesser extent even Josemi as cheap cover for Finnan and Zenden as cheap cover for Risse and Kewell. My only problem is the 7 mill for Crouch and the turmoil created upfront.

I'd like to see

for tough away games

Reina

Carra Hyypia Traore

Finnan Hamman/Sissoko Riise

Gerrard Alonso

Cisse

Morientes

With Garcia/Pongo and Crouch as subs for Cisse and Mori respectively

while at home or 'should win away' games

Reina

Finnan Carra Hyypia Warnock

Barragan Gerrard Alonso Kewell

Cisse Morientes

again with Garcia/Pongo and Crouch as subs for Cisse and Mori respectively, plus Riise for Kewell or Warnock.

Until January we really need to give some of the youngsters a run out at home in the right wing position. Its not going to lose us the game and we might just find someone who shines in the spotlight.

Thoughts anyone...

by **Lando_Griffin** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:35 am

Why not. I'd like to see Barragan play a few more games.

by **babu** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:44 am

Traore? please please no.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:46 am

He's not too bad as a CB. Sh*te as a LB, though.

by **anfieldadorer** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:13 am

let's sort it out, mates,
i think it's due to:
1. lack of capable players, some cracks to fill in January
2. lack of capable players + rafa hasn't come out with the satisfying method and formation= too much experimental formation and tactics
3. strikers:
cisse's saga, he's just beginning to be alive and kicking after his horrible injury, he needs more hours of playing (as a striker, not winger, etc) to regain his confidence, while the manager has been likely looking for solution in other strikers
nando, rafa still firmly believes that nando is the messiah to save the forward crisis, rafa thinks he still wants more times to prove this
crouch, a target man who's been working hard yet waiting to be targeted regularly and systematically
sinama, "i'm here! hey, it's me senor!"
4. defense: sami has been fading away, carra works hard alone, djimi and josemi are as sh1t as they naturally are
5. midfield: they are crying ang getting frustrated
we also need natural wingers to feed the lonesome wingers upfront

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