because the team wants to get back to playing Derby's, missing getting back scuttled by the golden boys down the road
Players couldnt give a toss about a takeover. While takeovers may affect employees in other walks of life there is no job security for players in football anyway. Our problem is that we dont have enough competition for places in the matchday 11 so when players are not performing or injured the team suffers. The loss of Merino and Lascelles and Ritchies loss of form coincided with this downturn.
Seems a bit of an easy cop out too me. It can't be helping but they're ****ing professionals ffs. Could it not be more down to the fact that Rafa needs to be braver and you have a largely Championship squad?
No that would be a pathetic excuse. We are just not very good and Rafa is in a poor decision making period. I had to praise him at the start of the season as we were over performing but now he is making some bizarre decisions.
The players are poor. The selection, however, is where we are really struggling. There's clear favouritism and I think we may even have division in the ranks. I get the feeling that Rafa's stubbornness is killing us. For me, we need to be solid and hard to beat. That means we play 4-5-1. That means both Yedlin and Manquillo need to go and we need to bring in Mbemba on the right and Dummett on the left. If Dummett's not fit, we probably need Clark out there and Lascelles in the middle. Or we go 3 at the back, with Mbemba, Lascelles and Clark. But Rafa's attitude towards players HE bought is fcking insane and makes me wonder whether a manager without bias would be doing a better job? Move forward and what is the midfield doing? We need a defensive midfielder right in the middle whose job is to watch the play, cover and break things up. We just don't have a 10 so there's absolutely zero point in persevering with playing on; we should just tell Hayden to be a DM. He started life as a CB, he should understand to his core what defending is. Stop partnering him or swapping partnerships, ffs Rafa, as we're giving no time to allow player to learn each others game. Then ahead of Hayden you pick, unless there's an apocalypse, Shelvey and Merino. Every time. We do not have better footballers anywhere within the squad. The front three then need to learn how to play with each other. Atsu, Murphy and Mitrovic would be my selection, but any of Aarons, Ritchie and Gayle could do different jobs against different opposition. That would be it for me. Whether it's three at the back with wing backs or a flat four, we need the same midfield trio to play, we need one to sit and stay deep (Hayden) and we need Merino/Shelvey on the pitch. We should never be subjected to Perez, Diame, Joselu, Manquillo unless it's an absolute emergency and Rafa needs to either get his head out of his arse or fck off. Yeah, I said it. And I hate to say it - so will state that Rafa is CLEARLY far and away the biggest name we're ever likely to have in charge of the football club, takeover or not - but is he the right fit for our needs on the pitch? There's an awful lot of question marks over suitability with the players we have. I'm no football manager, but playing 4-4-2 with a Championship team against a team as decent as Leicester is just stupid. The BBC didn't know what our formation was (3-4-3?! Really?!) and sadly it looked like many of the players didn't understand either, Ritchie being a prime example whilst Hayden was utterly anonymous - what is his job? Does he even know? Watching MOTD it's hard to single out any team - apart from WBA - as being worse than we are. Leicester were quite poor - how else could we score twice - but won quite easily and 4 or 5-2 wouldn't have been harsh or unexpected.
Derby was a battle to be fair - as for the derbies won't happen next year even if we do get relegated.
Maybe the squad is getting sick of him bleating on about how they're not good enough and how money is needed to avoid relegation.
This is a very good point and something I been saying for a while now. It is so difficult to find the right balance. It is clear that they are ****. But a ****s a **** a ****. So it does not matter how **** it is it is still a **** and no matter how many times you say it is **** it won’t not be ****. Get what I am saying?
That **** had you midtable for a while and looked promising. Maybe that was the time Rafa should have eased off in the media about transfers and the ability of the squad and just let the team spirit continue to grow. Instead by continuing to push this agenda while the team were performing maybe he knocked the wind out of their sales. It does give the impression that no matter what they do, rafa wants to spend and replace them. He hasn't shut up about it all season.
Moyes was lambasted for doing the same with Sunderland. As a name Rafa is as big as we will ever get. Doesn't necessarily mean he's what's needed.
In theory I personally think he shouldn't go in front of the media saying that the players aren't good enough, we need money to stay up etc. All that should be said away from the dressing room and with the club management. In practice I really wonder how much communication he has at the moment with the people who hold the purse strings. Maybe he struggles to get the message through. Even of it negatively affects the players mindset by 1%, at the top level that is enough to stop us being competitive.
