Rafa's best XI
------------- Pepe Reina ------------
------ Good Carra - Hyypia -----
Arbeloa ----------------------- Riise
------------------ Mash ----------------
------- Good SG - Alonso --------
------ --------- Garcia -----------------
--------- Kuyt ------ Torres ---------
Subs include beauties such as:
Agger, Rieira, Finnan, Hamann etc. + more who you could argue deserve to be on this XI. Biscan obvious choice.
Rodger's best XI
(not including better players he refused to play but had at his disposal)
-------- Ming the meritless -----
----------- Skrtel - Lovren ---------
Clyne --------------------------- Gomez
----------------- Can --------------------
------- Old Gerrard - Hendo ----
------------ Coutinho -----------------
--------- Sturridge - Suarez ------
Subs: Sterling, old Carra, Benteke, old Lucas
So what's the conclusion. Well Rafa had a season or two more, so may not be 100% fair, but his team would look very similar if just 3 years... Maybe same.
Goal keeper. No contest. Rafa wins hands down. Rodgers had a chance to play pepe but didn't so not showing on Rodgers XI.
Defense: Again, no contest. You can't beat Carra and Hyypia. Yes Rodgers probably should have Agger and or Sakho on his team but refused to play them (so no point putting players who don't get game time on list).
Fullbacks: Easy win for Rafa, although Clyne and Gomez have potential and in 2 years might rival Arbeloa and Riise.
Defensive Mid. Can is great and has a good future but Rafa had Mash who was best in world at that position. Even Hamann would best Can at this stage. Sissoko at his best would too. Love Can but Rafa knew how to pick a DM.
Midfield: Gerrard in his prime wipes his butt on the Old man Gerrard that played every game for Brodge. Alonso far outshines Hendo.
Attacking Mid. Tough call here. Coutinho is brilliant half the time and completely annonymous at others. Garcia always worked his butt off and produced spectacular moments at times and other times made you cringe. I have to give Rodgers slight advantage here.
Forwards. SAS beats Kuyt and Torres. This is Rodgers one clear victory over Rafa. Individually Kuyt not always being injured and hard work rate puts him ever so slightly above Studge just about. As brilliant as Torres was Suarez was a class above.
Subs: Rafa again wins hands down. Most of the subs in Rafa's XI would walk into Rodgers team... Well you'd hope they would... But Rodgers would probably just sell them all after not using them.
So what was the point of this exercise.
1) Nostalgia. Rafa is my daddy.
2) To show how bad we've been in xfers since Rafa left. Except for Suarez, Rafa clearly wins on almost every part of the field. We've deteriorated in every position... And even Rodger's one sweet tooth, Suarez, is now long gone.
------------- Pepe Reina ------------
------ Good Carra - Hyypia -----
Arbeloa ----------------------- Riise
------------------ Mash ----------------
------- Good SG - Alonso --------
------ --------- Garcia -----------------
--------- Kuyt ------ Torres ---------
Subs include beauties such as:
Agger, Rieira, Finnan, Hamann etc. + more who you could argue deserve to be on this XI. Biscan obvious choice.
Rodger's best XI
(not including better players he refused to play but had at his disposal)
-------- Ming the meritless -----
----------- Skrtel - Lovren ---------
Clyne --------------------------- Gomez
----------------- Can --------------------
------- Old Gerrard - Hendo ----
------------ Coutinho -----------------
--------- Sturridge - Suarez ------
Subs: Sterling, old Carra, Benteke, old Lucas
So what's the conclusion. Well Rafa had a season or two more, so may not be 100% fair, but his team would look very similar if just 3 years... Maybe same.
Goal keeper. No contest. Rafa wins hands down. Rodgers had a chance to play pepe but didn't so not showing on Rodgers XI.
Defense: Again, no contest. You can't beat Carra and Hyypia. Yes Rodgers probably should have Agger and or Sakho on his team but refused to play them (so no point putting players who don't get game time on list).
Fullbacks: Easy win for Rafa, although Clyne and Gomez have potential and in 2 years might rival Arbeloa and Riise.
Defensive Mid. Can is great and has a good future but Rafa had Mash who was best in world at that position. Even Hamann would best Can at this stage. Sissoko at his best would too. Love Can but Rafa knew how to pick a DM.
Midfield: Gerrard in his prime wipes his butt on the Old man Gerrard that played every game for Brodge. Alonso far outshines Hendo.
Attacking Mid. Tough call here. Coutinho is brilliant half the time and completely annonymous at others. Garcia always worked his butt off and produced spectacular moments at times and other times made you cringe. I have to give Rodgers slight advantage here.
Forwards. SAS beats Kuyt and Torres. This is Rodgers one clear victory over Rafa. Individually Kuyt not always being injured and hard work rate puts him ever so slightly above Studge just about. As brilliant as Torres was Suarez was a class above.
Subs: Rafa again wins hands down. Most of the subs in Rafa's XI would walk into Rodgers team... Well you'd hope they would... But Rodgers would probably just sell them all after not using them.
So what was the point of this exercise.
1) Nostalgia. Rafa is my daddy.
2) To show how bad we've been in xfers since Rafa left. Except for Suarez, Rafa clearly wins on almost every part of the field. We've deteriorated in every position... And even Rodger's one sweet tooth, Suarez, is now long gone.
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