by bigmick » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:32 pm
As usual whenever the subject gets around to the manager and "progression", some posters get a bit umpty that anyone dare criticise. A couple of things are certainies in such a debate. Firstly the "do you go to the game" factor will crop up, secondly that before long someone will mention the fact that it took Ferguson a long time to win the Premiership, and thirdly the "we are only a couple of players short" argument will rear its head. I've noticed another one creeping in recently, this "I don't personally buy into the idea that our failure in the league can be solely laid at the door of rotation".
To answer them in order. I don't go to the game but we didn't boss the home match against Man Utd by a long shot. We huffed and puffed but it was men against boys,that is my opinion of course and everyone else is entitled to theirs.
Secondly, nobody can deny it took Ferguson a long time to win the Premiership. I am bound to say though that it didn't take him an age to mount a challenge. This is for me the crux of any debate regarding our so-called progression. We have never ever, not even for an instant mounted any sort of challenge for the Premiership whatsoever under Rafa. We can win European Cups (more on that later), we can go on extended winning runs in the Premiership, we can arguably "boss" games against the top teams, knock them out of FA Cups, Champions Leagues etc etc but we cannot get close enough to even mount a fleeting challenge in the league. It didn't take Ferguson seven years to mount a challenge, I hope it doesn't take Rafa that long either.
The "we are only a couple of players short" is an interesting one. Last season we were "only a twenty goals a season striker" short, as well as "only a bloke who can play down the left" short. Now we've certainly filled one of those berths if not quite the other, but we are still a country mile behind the leaders (and indeed the team which is challenging them, and since you're asking also the team which has fallen by the wayside over this last month). I don't dispute that signing top quality first team-players, not "options" or "possibilities" has to be the priority, but will we this time next season be talking about them needing that first season to adapt and "just watch them go next year". Will we perhaps be talking about the "slight mistake Rafa made in resting our new players after four games, THAT'S where we lost it". Hopefully not.
The last recurring point is the rotation one. The blame not being solely at it's door, "ifithadn'thavebeenforrotation". I don't know where this has come from but it's in a similar category to "YOU CAN'T PLAY THE SAME TEAM IN EVERY SINGLE GAME FFS!". Nobody is saying you can (well with the possible exception of John) and I'm not absolutely sure anybody is saying if it hadn't have been for rotation we would have won the league either. Another urban myth I'm afraid. Clearly we can still beat Pompey away even if Gerrard and Torres are "resting" on the bench, it's not the only reason we didn't win there, or indeed at home against Brirmingham ("But Torres started against Porto away and we didn't win there either" yes I know) but equally clearly, your chances of winning both games significantly increase if your best players are actually on the pitch. You don't fail to win JUST because of rotation, but I would venture that in those two circumstances it was a fairly major factor.
So how far have we progressed? Well clearly we are a much better team than the one which won the Champions League, and most probably at least the equal of the team that ran on through beaten horses to get within nine points of the Champions a couple of years back. If Man Utd win at Chelsea and effectively seal their League win, we may yet get the chance to do the same this season although within nine points might be stretching it a bit. Unlike many though, i think we are currently a fair way short of a league win, not just in the players (as our spine is indeed very good) but more pertinantly in the attitude, the ethos and the outlook of the team and manager.
Ditching at long last and once and for all the silliness of Rafa style is obviously (well obvious to me anyway) step one in allowing ourselves to mount a challenge. It maybe a coincidence that we've suddenly started to turn in results which would be Championship form over the last six weeks while we've settled on a formation and team, but then again maybe it isn't. It maybe a coincidence that in that period we had one awful performance, but we managed to instantly bounce back from it unlike our extended bliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips earlier in the season. Our consistency and our ability to go and get points at the grounds of the bigger teams maybe just coincidence, but then again maybe it isn't. My suspicion is that it isn't a coincidence, and please God we have finally, eventually learnt our lesson.
Step two (and I agree with the posters who have said so) is that we need a couple of top-class players. Yes to improve the first team, but also to cover for injuries. We've been lucky with injuries this season, with neither of our best players sustaining them. God only knows where we would be if our star striker had fecked off to play in the African Nations, or our goalkeeper had been out twice, our captain and central defensive lynchpin had been injured, etc etc. So we need to buy, buy well and big. Buy selectively, no more "options" and "possibilities".
And what of the Champions League? Well we're definately successful in that, and all of us enjoy the huge nights which go down in the clubs history. To get in it, you need to finsih in the top four. Under rafa if we discount the first season as it wasn't his team (even though he took the plaudits for winning the Champions League with it and rightly so) we have made the Champions League every year. I'm bound to say though that we ought to as well really. We're competing for fourth this season with a team who have a transfer budget which is probably about a quarter of ours, and who are frankly a very ordinary side so we really oght to be able to get in the thing every season. Then we go into a group situation where you can afford a couple fo dodgy results, but as long as you win a couple of Home games and pick up around nine or so points in six games against teams which finsihed in the top couple in Holland, Turkey, Greece, Portugal etc etc you go through to the knockout stage. All four of the English teams made it through this year, and so they should. You're then in the last sixteen, and you need to win three home/away aggregate games and a final in order to be successful. It's no coincidence that three of the four teams who made the semis last season are in there again this season. Chelsea just about always get there, we usually do and the mance do too. Arsenal made the final a couple of years back and the competition really is becoming a jamboree for the English clubs with the big squads and big money. To get to the semi we had to beat Inter, who lead a substandard Italian League and Arsenal, which was a good achievement. Chelsea had to overcome Fenerbace, Turkeys finest and Man Utd had to surpass Roma, a mid table Italian outfit. I know I'll get absolutely slaughtered for this, but it just doesn't compensate in my eyes anyway for continual abject failure in the league. Exciting yes, but this team and this manager need to win the league.
Next season I don't think we can win it, as we haven't got a platform. I think winning the league is a bit like climbing Everest, you've got to get your base camp set up, and then move on from there. What we absolutely must do though, is launch some sort of challenge. The players havew to be close enough to feel that pressure, that pressure that says you HAVE to get a result or you'll lose ground. that pressure that makes you throw men forward when it's 1-1 with ten minutes left, because you know nothing less than a win will do. Failure to mount any type of challenge, or a reversal into the depths of Rafa style and the time would be up for me.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".
mile, would have beaten Chelse but for the ref and should have gotten a draw against United) would yeild us 9 points, whilst deducting one from Chelsea and two from United. The table would then look like this:
