maypaxvobiscum wrote:SouthCoastShankly wrote:This is starting to feel stale, just as when Houllier was here. Great manager but has he taken us a far as he can?
i concur. i voted for rafa. he has wasted too much money on mediocre players when quality was actually the players he sold. for example:
1) Warnock > dossena
2) Cisse > babel
3) Riise > dossena
4) Hamann > lucas
5) Finnan > degen
6) Fowler > ngog
7) Crouch > voronin
8) Hyypia - greekos
many players or proven quality he should have kept but sold and their replacements are pure trash. another player whom i wish was given a new contract was Kewell. yes he may have had a torrid spell on the sidelines but if he has so much patience with Aurelio, why not Kewell? put it this way, if Baros, Cisse and Crouch were here today, our strikeforce would be so so so much better than what we currently have (or not have) right now. and Sinama should never had been sold.
top teams don't rely on just 2 players the way we do. look at Arsenal and the maturity of their kids compared to ours. and if money is such as issue, why purchase a keeper who hardly ever plays? Diego cost us around 3mill didnt he? the money could've been spent elsewhere surely? im sure Cudicini and Sorenson were available for free back then. lets take a look at the recent transfers in europe. the prices of these players are obscenely low and we would have much better depth were they to be in our team today..
Crespo - unsure of the amount but if Genoa can afford him, why not us?
Mellborg - he recently signed for Olympiakos for just 2.5million.
Podolski - left Munich for 10million
Duff - joined Fulham for 4.7million
Niemi - free transfer
Lorik Cana -5.5million to Sunderland
Kranjcar - 2.8million to Spurs
Tuncay - 5.7million to Stoke
Maxwell - Inter to Barca for 4.5million
the above mentioned are merely some players whom rafa could have bought instead of who rafa eventually did. blame the owners as much as you want but they are not responsible for rafa's pathetic record when it comes to transfers. besides that, i feel he lacks imagination when it comes to tactics. all our opponents have to do is nullify Gerrard and Torres and we no longer have much of a threat anymore as time and time again our team depends on those 2 to come up with something out of nothing.
I agree much was said about Gerard Houllier but he won 3 cups in his time and Rafa has won 2 ?
You could say Rafa won the CL with most of Gerard Houllier's squad.
Fact is more time rafa has been at our club the worse the squad has got that does not seem like progress to me.Yes we did finish 2nd last season but 2nd never wins you any thing.
End of day tactics only get you so far in football if you don't have players who want to play for you then you stuffed and the players didn't look like they could be assed tbh.
Rafa is cold manager and its fine when you winning when the wheels fall off it really shows I think there isn't much love in the dressing room and I guess that grinds on a players confidence after a while.Rafa needs to change he needs to carebear up a bit and put his arm around a player now and agian and show some love.If he could do this I think it be first step to becomming a great manager.