He starts with a mentality of having a compact, tight defence. It's a legitimate strategy, especially when your players are limited in an attacking sense, although it doesn't make for the best viewing at times I'll admit. Look at today. We did try to attack but had no nouse to create owt and couldn't pass water. It's not that defensive, just a total lack of quality. Yes, I can accept we could maybe have pressed them higher up the pitch and certainly injected a bit more intensity in closing down in general but sometimes players are not always at level 10 so it happens. Specifically in today's game I think it also needs mentioning that Brighton also fouled us every time we got a counter attack started so they could get back and defend. They broke up our play quite effectively and also crowded us on our right side so we had difficulty in creating anything. They had done their homework on us.
I don’t mind him being cautious. I just wish he’d get his selection and approach to certain games sorted out as he is costing us points. There is no point dressing it up for me, it’s not just quality or other teams being brilliant that see us having such a horrific home record this season. He has to take some of it on his 7 chins unfortunately. His management of resource at home has been poor - hopefully he can sort it out.
I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't follow football to watch this kind of ****. There's almost no point to even following it; might as well just tune in on the last day and see if we have 40 points. We can't all be swashbuckling sides, I understand, but we've got to have a go at some teams.
It's like the bad old days. Walking up to the game expecting to see ****, and a defeat. Supporting the lads. and getting that defeat (or at worst a **** performance). Then wondering... 'why do I bother'...... Then going back. Rinse and repeat.
Bad old days, bad new days. Almost wished we never had the mid-90's, or early 2000's. Set the bar at a level we have no hope of getting back to. Just watched the highlights of Wolves/Bristol. Two teams pinging it about, having a go in an entertaining match. I know survival is the aim, but how much worse would we be right now if we'd just had a proper tactic and had a go at teams? I don't understand how almost every other team shows fight and has something of an identity. Our identity is defend deep if it's weak opposition, defend deeper if they're good. There is no intensity, no counter attack. If anything, we at least have some pace but just cannot use it. It has been boring for a year and a half under Rafa (longer under the others). Take the two West Ham games out and the Norwich comeback, it's pretty pathetic stuff. I loathe the hopelessness most of all. We were dour in the Championship which is my issue with Benitez. I couldn't give a stuff if we were bottom of this league - I'd understand if we were, given the ****eness of this squad, but to be staring relegation in the face on our worst runs for some 50+ years is unacceptable. Brighton, Hudds, Burnley didn't spend much more, but spent well and attempt to play football. I cannot stand the comments where it's all about better players. For me, that's the excuses for people like Souness or McLaren - no tactics, we'll just finish wherever our players are good enough to finish. Rafa's transfer record is, all in all, woeful. He got very fortunate with some excellent home grown talent at Liverpool. But when he's given some cash, the results are pretty terrible.
Mate I'm certain Rafa would aswell. If we'd have got a decent AM, a good LB so Atsu can shirk defensive responsibility, obviously a striker worth more than peanuts and a GK who plays the ball out how he wants, maybe we'd see that. All i can say is who can honestly tell me how we can be more attacking with the squad we have without decimating the defence. Personally im more in favour of not seeing us get pummelled 5-0 by teams anymore as we had for the last few years in the prem. Do you not remember how demoralising it was when the team lost it's head and the defence disappeared? This would then be followed by a few weeks of shakey performances. Cirticise all you want, personally I'm saving mine for when he's actually been backed to get the player he wanted rather than scratting around for a 5m Joselu. Everyone sat there moaning about Rafa cannot offer me one realistic alternative and I've been asking that question for a month or so now. Sometimes you gota realise we're a relegation team. If you wana go down all valiantly like Blackpool that's your prerogative, personally I want to start next season in the Prem with, potentially, a new owner.
Its amusing that if Rafa had attacked (**** knows how though cos none of his attacking players showed up) you would all be having a ****-fit calling for his head and saying he'd lost the plot when we shipped a couple of goals and our strike-force didn't magically turn capable because we're trying to attack more. So basically he's just gota win every game (and get a point off city looking at post-match comments) for some fans' approval. Listen to yourselves. And dont talk **** to me about attacking, we have a strike-force of Joselu, Gayle and Johnny Mitro see if you can even manage attacking football on a season of Football Manager with that crap, nevermind real life.
For me, and I'm no football manager, our best players (lol) would suit a flexible 3-4-3. Elliot; Mbemba, Lascelles, Dummett/Clark; Yedlin, Merino, Shelvey, Aarons; Ritchie, Gayle, Atsu.
Defensively though? With Gayle upfront we'll be lucky for a goal, if we push the wingers up to make this attacking then our defence would suffer massively and, I think, we would let in more goals than we would score. That's Benitez's problem
Souness and Mclaren both had better teams. This is the first season in PL history I remember pretty much everyone saying we will be lucky not to get relegated. Surprise surprise we get to Jan, we're not actually in the relegation spots and everyone's saying Rafa doesn't know what he's doing. Think the transfer thing is an unfair thing to throw in, I could pick crap from any manager and I swear that Aquilani purchase will be held against him for the rest of his life. It seems irrelevant that in his time at Liverpool alone he bought Garcia, Xabi Alonso, Kuyt, Arbeloa, Reina, Agger, Mascherano, Lucas, Skrtl and Glen Johnson. There's some crap in there don't get me wrong but he can find players. Even brought Coutinho to Inter i think
Sadly so mate, this season was always guna be a ****ing nightmare from the minute Rafa and Charnley had their little deadline day rendezvous
Chris Hughton and Alan Pardew performed better under very similar constraints. I could literally reel off 20 managers who could have done better with 94m over two summer transfer windows. If you are asking who wants to try and clear up this mess Rafa has created then it is more difficult I grant you that.
Had better teams though. Maybe Pardew's was bought for him but it was still better. And no, reel me off the managers that have done better in making 17m profit over two years and been seemingly unable to get much of anyone over 60k, which is frankly a standard wage for a decent player in the PL
Come on mate. Get real. I don’t mind us playing defensive to get through the first season up. Hughton did it very effectively. The big difference he picked his games when to attack and get results. He was flexible and got the best out of his resources. He built a far better side up from Championship. Take the Rafa blinkers off for a minute and actually take in our 94m spend in two summer windows and where he has us as a result. Forget how it was generated as we have always done this under Ashley like Carroll. His transfer work has been garbage on the whole. His strike rate worrying at best. Aquilani? You’ve named the goodies at Liverpool. Should we run through the bad ones like Dossena, Babel, Voronin, Kromkamp, etc etc. It’s a long list believe me. Coutinho was Inter long before Rafa arrived. He signed in 2008. It was Jose then Rafa who simply got the benefit of him coming of age. Only thing Rafa did was tell Liverpool how great he was after he got sacked for being ****e. Then you have his use of the resources he does have. I accept he doesn’t like Mitro. Fair enough. He should have sold him as soon as the championship season ended if that is the case and used the money. Instead he kept him and then has flat refused to use what many consider our best striker. I don’t think he’s any great shakes but I’m certain he is better than Joselu. In fact Murphy would have been. He has somehow managed to replace Murphy, Gouffran and Anita with inferior players and spent money doing so. That isn’t make believe, it’s a just a realistic assessment. He has brought in Lejeunes for 9m and appeared to already have suitable resources in that area. Certainly his reluctance to use Mbemba is just weird. His preference for Hayden and Diame on many occasions over Shelvey is strange. There just seems to be a ongoing theme with Rafa as soon as we got relegated. Moaning about money, making hard work of the job, poor team selections, poor transfers, poor substitutions. I mean is there anything you’re happy for him to take responsibility for which could be considered not the best?
Rafa was best with McClarens team. As soon as we handed the kitty over to him and his goons we’ve got progressively worse.
Yeh but you havent answered. Thought their was loads you could reel off. Also add the circumstances of having to create a team to bounce straight back up. Saying 94m without acknowledging the state of the squad is just pointless mate. So we lost sissoko, townsend, colo, cisse, tiote, blah blah blah but apparently it's irrelevant because with 94m, you too can create a team from a general husk that will be able to both get out the champ and play an attacking brand of football in the Prem. Aye Hughton had a better mentality existant within his squad, never to denote his achievements mind. Yeh i said he makes **** transfers, but not massively different to other managers. Many things he's done wrong like, substitions can piss me off at times for certain but generally understand team selection. You know my opinion on Mitro so that doesn't bother me. Just seems not guna be banging on about things done wrong, we talk like there's a manager that can do a better job. There will always be moans about the manager, we all think we can do a better job. A new manager wont change that at all. Apparently it's Rafas fault that he clearly handed over a load of targets and Charnley went for the cheapest wages by paying 12m for Murphy, but probably at roughly 30k a week at best. You talk like Rafa bought a 12m winger knowing full well 40k wages would be too much for a keeper. Also see Rafa saying nobody leaves unless there's cover? I'd say he had his fingers burnt and never expected to be trading Murphy for Joselu. Say he gets enough money to at least get his first choices, then I'll be sat pissing about it aswell but until then I'm not going to talk like we have loads of viable alternatives. Seriously nobody will touch us.
So we lost some players when we went down. No problem. You do realise we spent 13m on three players who barely kicked a ball. We’ve had to sell one and loan out two this season. I just don’t understand how you come down and retain Elliott, Woodman, Darlow, Lascelles, Mbemba, Shelvey, Mitrovic, Anita, Colback, Dummett, Aarons, Perez, Armstrong, Gouffran, Ameobi, De Jong, Krul, Saivet, Sterry, Rivière - loan out a few, spend 57m and you’ve had it hard? It’s laughable. He wasted 13m of it on Sels, Hanley and Lazaar. On top of what he wasted this summer instead of focusing on buying what he really needed to play the tactics he wanted. A blind man could see the priorities were a no.10, a striker and a left back. A winger and centre mid were next. We got the centre mid on loan. So we had 37m to do something with rest. If he’d retained Anita and bought Hughes, Ricarlison, Bryan and Atsu would that have been bad going? Nah I think most fans would have thought “yep he’s ticked the boxes, anything else is a bonus”. Instead we have load of deadwood added. I’ve answered the question in the very first question. Are you asking me who I think could have done better with 94m or who can now sort this unholy mess Rafa has created? If the latter it’s very difficult as I think a lot of managers would look at what he has spent the 95m on and think “**** that he has completely bollocksed that up I’m not carrying the can”. I’d be livid if he took the cowards way out now and didn’t try to rectify this ****e. I already said Pardew and Hughton would certainly have got us back up if handed 57m and the squad we were left with when we came down. Take your pick of Championship managers now and last season. They’d all have been very confident of doing so. I dare say 90% would have done it with less than 57m and kept some back for this summer. Bought better players. Dress it up how we want we were better off with Carr in terms of transfers. We are buying worse players now and the constraints are no different.
