Rafa: Performances are not getting just rewards
After our 4-1 defeat Rafa claimed that we didn't deserve to be on the end of such a scoreline. Although we had more possession than Chelsea they were clinical in taking their chances and we also gifted them some of the goals with defensive lapses:
"We need to improve - but we are playing much better than our results say."
"For the first 25 minutes we played very well, and for the first half I saw a very good Liverpool," he told Sky Sports 1.
"We played at the same level as them in the first half - but if you concede goals then you must play with risk. That is when you are likely to concede another."
I felt we suffered as usual due to a lack of creativity. Peter Crouch is crying out for a partner up front but Rafa seems insistent on keeping his preferred 4-5-1 formation.
Please post your views in the aftermath of the defeat.
posted by withwolves @ 6:05 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
It looks to me like we have a spanish houllier on our hands, he bought Crouch for the same reason Houllier bought Heskey, and it never works, you don't see the Arse, Chelsea or Manure using such tactics, and the reason is simple, they don't score goals.
We still have the same problem with players who should not be there, the most obvious being Djimi (calamity James mk2) Traore, who consistently proves how bad he is, yet he still makes the squad.
Sorry too say, same old story for us, a tactically disastrous manager, and a striker who is absolute rubbish.
Everyone but Rafa, can see Crouch may be good at holding up the ball, but a great goalscorer he will never be, the reason we lost again Chelsea....simple, no one to demoralise them by scoring goals, that's the only way too beat them.
Sadly, this was Houllier's failing, never spotting an inept player and taking him out of the equation, he will stubbornly stick with players like Crouch and Traore, because like Houllier he is to proud to admit he is wrong about both.
I totally agree, I have seen nothing from Crouch to suggest he is any good, sure he can hold up the play, but how has that helped us?, and the talk of him being like Heskey is bang on, when will Liverpool ever learn?
It does seem like Deja Vu, we have been through this so many times, the long ball is for a team that cannot play well on the ground, and only teams that can play on the ground will be the best, because long ball is predictable and easy to counter.
It comes as no surprise that we get pasted by Chelsea, there is just no invention and no skill in this team, the passing is nice, but there is no imagination in the last 1/3, so the only option left is to hoof it into the penalty box in the hope that Crouch can do something, smacks of desperation to me.
Worse than anything, is that this will not change the managers thinking, we will have another 2 years of excuses and tactical disasters, until we find ourselves back where we left Mr Houllier.
Personally, I would mould someone to be in the hole (obviously not Garcia...he doesn't impress there), and get concentrate my efforts on Cisse and Morientes, forget Crouch....he is a bad mistake.
Sorry to say guys, but we were absolute rubbish today. We absolutely caved and only 1 or 2 players had their heart in the game. Crouch must just get lost somewhere, and if cisse does not start getting games, we are doomed. Rafa I am sorry, but because you win the Champs league does not mean you do not make mistakes, only now you make them over and over and over and...
When is putting a player to hold a ball more important than a player who can score. The reason Crouch scored so many last year was because the rest of his team were just... well relegated says it all. We need passion and flair, not a traffic light on red. Let Cisse have a run of games with pongolle and let them try run riot until Crouch or Morientes can be sold and replaced. But today we were second best at best, and Chelsea were by far the better team
I think it's just a case of Rafa learning to get to grips with the Premiership. As soon as Europe comes round he is a brilliant manager. He is still learning how to approach the Premiership games and the type of tactics and formations that will prove to be successful.
Crouch hasn't played a dozen games for us and he's already being compared with Heskey.
Benitez's idea has always been to play with attacking wide players - something that didn't concern Houllier. Unfortunately the deals for Simao and Gonzalez both fell through, so we have to wait and see how well the system will work once the right players are brought in.
Rafael Benitez is far from being a tactically disastrous manager. After defeating Juventus in the Champions League last season Fabio Capello praised Benitez's tactics.
The result to Chelsea was ultimately three points lost, but there are still 96 points left to play for. There's a long way to go.
it is all well that we did not get the players we needed for the wings, but to not play a world class player like cisse is criminal, even for Benitez. It is like all our last few managers. If they dont get their way 100% of the time, they get rid of you. We needed Baros, and we needed cisse today. How can crouch be more dangerous than cisse when he cannot shoot for s**t. I know we need wide players to give the service, but cisse would be far more dangerous than crouch, hence him scoring 6 or 7 this season so far to crouch's ehhh.... 0.
How can Benitez not see that he needs to play players who can win games, not slow it down so that he can analyse it carefully from the touchline, because else teams will all score 4 past us before he gets the message. Juventus was in europe, not the PL, and we need to focus on the league now or we will end up in the bottom half.
But hey thats ok, because we won the CL last year, i forgot.
For me its not good enough
It's strange that Cisse was not picked. We didn't have any kind of goal threat from Crouch except for maybe one chance when he flicked it over Carvalho and volleyed over.
But we beat Chelsea 'in Europe' as well. And they had scored no goals against us for three matches in a row before today. But in this match we defended as badly as we attacked.
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