Early Analysis - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool & Man Utd

The team's now pretty much his own, not many rubbish Houllier players left. If he still gets nowhere near the title this season then Liverpool need to consider his position.

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:The team's now pretty much his own, not many rubbish Houllier players left. If he still gets nowhere near the title this season then Liverpool need to consider his position.

this guy keeps getting better and better

in a world where football clubs are run by a bunch of clowns (or in the land of real madrid) you may well have a point.... as for in reality ..... well...............

He's won the CL for Liverpool , and done well in the league , how can you say that Liverpool should consider his positon.

BilalShah wrote:He's won the CL for Liverpool , and done well in the league , how can you say that Liverpool should consider his positon.

I agree but don't you think he should settle on one formation? Whilst being a great coach he seems intent on squad rotation and that may work against him in the long term.

That probably is a bit strong actually. I just don't think he's done enough in england to prove he's a better manager that SAF, AW or JM

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:That probably is a bit strong actually. I just don't think he's done enough in england to prove he's a better manager that SAF, AW or JM

Do you not think he needs more time then Johnny?
Liverpool will soon reap the fruits of his labour.

yours truly wrote:

BilalShah wrote:He's won the CL for Liverpool , and done well in the league , how can you say that Liverpool should consider his positon.

I agree but don't you think he should settle on one formation? Whilst being a great coach he seems intent on squad rotation and that may work against him in the long term.

His rotates a bit too much for my liking but if it works and he have a fresh team in the last part of season seriously challenging for trophies then nobody will complain.

i take it you mean one best 11 yours truely??? in that case i can name you the players that will play more or less 80 percent of games this year in their position

GK- reina
Rb- finnan
Cb- carragher
Cb- agger
Rm- gerrard
Cm- sissoko
Cm- alonso
St- kuyt

that's a core of 8 players that will play more or less every game... rotation is an easy point to pick up on when a team is losing however we didnt hear one mention of it last year when during liverpool's 12 game winning streak rafa made a total of 43 changes...

it's rafas method of winning trophies and his record is quite frankly impossible to argue against

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:That probably is a bit strong actually. I just don't think he's done enough in england to prove he's a better manager that SAF, AW or JM

johnny mate.... newsflash... england is not the only country in this world that football is played in

yours truly wrote:
Whilst being a great coach he seems intent on squad rotation and that may work against him in the long term.

? While it might work against him in the short term (i.e. lack of player understanding, or the best players, meaning we drop points now), surely it is by definition a long-term policy.

COTR wrote:i take it you mean one best 11 yours truely??? in that case i can name you the players that will play more or less 80 percent of games this year in their position

GK- reina
Rb- finnan
Cb- carragher
Cb- agger
Rm- gerrard
Cm- sissoko
Cm- alonso
St- kuyt

that's a core of 8 players that will play more or less every game... rotation is an easy point to pick up on when a team is osing however we didnt hear one mention of it last year when during liverpool's 12 game winning streak rafa made a total of 43 changes...

it's rafas method of winning trophies and his record is quite frankly impossible to argue against

Do you not think this may work ut against you though? Before Rafa went to Valencia he was close to falling into obscurity because of this, most notably at Tenerife. Another question who would you prefer to play at left back?

Do you not think this may work ut against you though?

on accasions as a supporter it is frustrating.. you do prefer to see what you percieve to be your best 11 on the pitch in every game.. but it's hardly as if the replacements that come in are low quality.. people always talk about having strong squads but to maintain a strong squad you have to keep playing the players or in other words rotate.. you can't really have both sides of the argument. anyway constantly making changes, keeping people on their toes etc etc is good management and reduces complacency and also creates doubt for the opposition manager.. while rafa continues to do the brilliant job he is currently doing i won't be doubting his decisions at all

Before Rafa went to Valencia he was close to falling into obscurity because of this, most notably at Tenerife.

totally irrelevent because of what he has done since on a sustained level

Another question who would you prefer to play at left back?

well i wouldn't swap riise for any other left back in this world so hopefully this answers your question... aurelio is very very handy back up though

Actually, it was what he did at Tenerife that got him the job at Valencia. It was his jobs before then that he'd done rather poorly in.

Tenerife I believe was his first full-time position with Paco Ayestaran - ever since then he's been on the up. It's impossible to speculate why, but I'd have a guess at the man-management aspect. Everything I've read leads me to believe that Rafa is cold and detatched towards the players, whereas Paco is the more friendly of the 2. Obviously certain aspects of eachothers personality have now rubbed off on eachother, but at the time I think it was essential that Rafa have someone who can build a strong relationship with the players.


Anyways, it was Tenerife he got promoted. It was there he basically discovered Luis Garcia and Curro Torres. Then he moved to Valencia, taking Torres with him.

He may only have been at the very top for a short-time (5-6 years), but the work he's done at that level shows his staying power. 7 Trophies in that time shows that.

Anyways, like Roger said - Squad rotation really is a benefit in the long term.

How many teams in Europe have a squad of 22 individuals that can come in and do the job asked of them, without any noticeable drop in quality? It takes time, but the rewards are clearly worth it in Rafa's eyes.

Obispo wrote:Actually, it was what he did at Tenerife that got him the job at Valencia. It was his jobs before then that he'd done rather poorly in.

Tenerife I believe was his first full-time position with Paco Ayestaran - ever since then he's been on the up. It's impossible to speculate why, but I'd have a guess at the man-management aspect. Everything I've read leads me to believe that Rafa is cold and detatched towards the players, whereas Paco is the more friendly of the 2. Obviously certain aspects of eachothers personality have now rubbed off on eachother, but at the time I think it was essential that Rafa have someone who can build a strong relationship with the players.


Anyways, it was Tenerife he got promoted. It was there he basically discovered Luis Garcia and Curro Torres. Then he moved to Valencia, taking Torres with him.

He may only have been at the very top for a short-time (5-6 years), but the work he's done at that level shows his staying power. 7 Trophies in that time shows that.

Anyways, like Roger said - Squad rotation really is a benefit in the long term.

How many teams in Europe have a squad of 22 individuals that can come in and do the job asked of them, without any noticeable drop in quality? It takes time, but the rewards are clearly worth it in Rafa's eyes.

Oh right apologies I was close enough lol. Do you think that your results this season are mainly down to squad rotation or just bad luck?

Neither. Obviously, it is convenient to just blame bad luck, and it would be partly true, but that's not the whole story.

It's a culmination of bad luck, key injuries which have forced changes and of course, we've played strong opponents.

I've said ever since the fixtures were done that if we were under 10 points or so by mid-November then we were capable of winning the league. Same principle towards the end of the season. We have the easiest run-in on any of the teams, but we need to be within touching distance to capitalise upon that.

Oh right apologies I was close enough lol. Do you think that your results this season are mainly down to squad rotation or just bad luck?

my view on the main games/setbacks

sheffield- first game of the season, their crowd was up for a massive fight and their players gave every ounce of energy they had.. it's was basically a cup game and cup game atmosphere.. first half was poor but we played excellently second half and at the very least deserved a point.. defensive lapse cost us the win

everton- rushing carragher back at the expense of agger was a mistake but an understandable one... this game is the one criticism i have of rafa so far. fowler and crouch was a mistake.. and saying that the luck we had in that match defied belief. eveton's two goals were totally against the run of play and we hit posts and had stonewall penalites denied. just one of those games

chelsea- surely no explanation needed here... great performance, poor finishing and next to no luck.. chelsea scored with their only quarter chance

bolton- total and utterly in control of the game before the linesman intervened.. in that respect rafa can't really do much more than make sure we are the better team.. it's up to the players to then finish the chances of... bolton only had about 3 shots in this game so it wasnt a performance i was worried about

we've had a tough start to the season fixture wise... however the only match that has actually got me worried about the team was the galatasury game.. i didnt recognise that liverpool performance (defensively).. but it has just confirmed that we are a much more solid team when sissoko is playing in the middle...it's a tough league.. setbacks are inevitable

Johnny_thunde_R wrote:The team's now pretty much his own, not many rubbish Houllier players left. If he still gets nowhere near the title this season then Liverpool need to consider his position.