alias75

It would be the easiest thing in the world for him to not substitute Torres and Gerrard but you have to admire the mans single mindedness. Whether you agree with his decisions or not (and personally i don't see the logic in taking off your best 2 players however tired they may be) you have to respect somebody that makes tough unpopular decisions even at a time when it would be so easy to take the easy way out and bow to pressure from the fans or the media. I guess it boils down to do you want a manager that knows what they're trying to achieve and has total confidence in those methods or somebody like Harry Redknapp that doesn't put a player on cos the crowd tells him not to. I know which i prefer.

by small details i mean we've missed chances we could have taken we've conceded late goals that on another day we wouldn't have. The difference between winning and drawing is slim sometimes, this is where us relying too much on 2 players to score and create costs us, if you look at Man Utd who are the bench mark they have Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Ronaldo, and even players like Nani that can come on against the weaker teams and make a difference. We have 2 world class attacking players and a couple that are very inconsistent its not enough.

He has shown in his time here that he can learn from his mistakes, with signings that don't work out hes shipped them out quickly and at the start of the season he kept a more regular selection in the first team. I don't now his reasons for the substitutions today on the surface they make very little sense but im sure he did have reasons for what he did, whatever you think of Rafa he doesn't do things without reason even if you disagree with that reason. I agree with the person that said we can't get rid of him because the possibilities of who we can replace him with just aren't there. Mourinho is the obvious one and if Rafa were to go hes the type of manager we'd need, somebody that could persuade most of our players to stay and somebody that would attract big players to the club. But at the moment i think we have to keep the faith and hope he learns some lessons, the truth is the core of a very strong, young team is there, we're very tough to beat at the moment and we're very small details away from turning some of these draws into wins.

maybe not 5 years but i want him to sign a new contract, starting again would be tough, whatever's happened the last month or so we've still only lost 1 game in the league all season and the margin between drawing and winning 3 or 4 of those games is very small. I know we seem to say this every season but we're only a couple of attacking players short of being very strong. The substitution stuff has to change though as has the obsession with the players fitness levels etc.. sometimes you have to understand that a player like Alonso offers more than somebody like Lucas even if hes not 100% fit.

You change the manager now and we're starting again, maybe we'll lose some of the Spanish players maybe not but any new manager will want his own players. We're not far away the core of the team is very strong, but the style of football we play does walk a thin line sometimes. If your going to play a more defensive style of football you simply cannot afford to lose 1-0 leads the whole point of playing that way is you get the goal and your almost impossible to break down. I think everyone is aware our attacking options aren't good enough, when you play with basically 4 attacking players you need much more consistency than we're getting from the 2 wide players. The substitution thing is getting pretty frustrating, surely the whole point of using subs is to change the course of a game so how you can go into games with almost pre-determined substitutions im not sure. Ok if we're 2 up with 10min to go give Gerrard a rest but taking him off at 1-1 makes little sense to me, im not sure what 10 min rest is going to do sometimes i think he treats the condition of the players to scientifically, if Alonso is at 95% thats still more than a 100% Lucas hes just bringing problems onto himself. Overall though i think we have to stick with Rafa i just don't see the alternatives being any better, hes built the core of a very good young team i know we've been saying this for a few years but we're a couple of good attacking players away from being a very good team, lets not forget we've still only lost 1 game this season in the league, the difference between winning and drawing a few is very small. But he doesn't do himself any favours at the moment with some of his decisions.

If we get James McCarthy too we've almost got the dream ticket for headline writers. As for Lennon id take a chance on him personally, he'd certainly offer us something different in attack, the ability to run with the ball at pace is something we don't have in those wide midfield areas. We've seen somebody like El Zhar make a difference in the short time hes played Lennon is a better version of that. The biggest difference i think somebody like Lennon would make is against the so called weaker teams, i don't think against the top 4 hes good enough to dominate a fullback but against weaker teams he can run them ragged and that would open up space for our other attacking players.

I also think we should get Barry but i dont think he takes Mascheranos place, in certain games when you dont need 2 holding midfielders you could play Barry alongside either Mascherano or Alonso, he certainly gets forward more than both of those and offers more of an attacking threat, it would also allow us to keep the Gerrard / Torres combination. Neither Alonso or Barry are good enough ball winning midfielders to replace Mascherano hes still one of our key players against the top teams.

id swap Keane for Modric, forget what you've seen for Spurs the guy is quality and in a better side with a much more solid defensive structure like us i think hed flourish. Exactly the type of creative player we badly need too.

Guess it depends on who buys Gillett's share, and if its still a 50/50 split. I doubt anybody would put hundreds of millions of pounds into a football team and not have an equal say, i know its not ideal but Gillett clearly isnt in a position financially to invest the money we need if we can find somebody that is, then surely thats better than the status quo. Unless of course the reports are accurate and its just a matter of waiting them out until July and forcing their hand which would obviously be preferable.

How would people feel about Hicks staying and somebody else buying Gillett's share? Obviously most of us would like both of them to go but if that isn't going to happen bringing somebody in with whose more wealthy than Gillett would be step forward at least. On the surface it seems that Hicks supports Rafa which is important and if hes determined to stick around its vital we have owners with the wealth to allow us to compete and to eventually fund the stadium. Gillett is obviously the poorer of the 2 so brining somebody else in with more money is better than nothing i suppose.

Its the players like Babel, Riera, Benayoun, Kuyt and Keane that need to step up and offer us something offensively. The Torres / Gerrard combination is great but you can't rely on 2 players to produce your attacking threat every game, our other attacking players are far too inconsistent and that needs to change. Teams are going to get men behind the ball against us and we need to find a way of breaking that down, personally im still pretty confident that Gerrard and Torres are both good enough to create at least 1 goal against most teams that are just looking to defend but we need more of a contribution from the other attacking players in the team too. It doesn't take much to turn a lot of these 0-0's into 1-0's

he started the first 15 or 16 games didnt he? From what ive seen hes been very poor in front of goal, choosing to pass or take an extra touch on numerous occasions when he could have taken the shot, maybe a lack of confidence but for a player with his experience you'd think hed be able to cope with it. He hasn't contributed nearly enough to the team, for a £20 million player we should expect more. Its obvious Rafa doesn't trust him and hes given him little reason to change that. When you have the Torres / Gerrard partnership as the alternative it really is no choice is it.

Exactly its not a surprise anymore is it. The point is are we going to be proactive about it and commit more players in attacking positions or remain solid and tough to score against and hope Gerrard or Torres do something or hope Babel or Kuyt have a good day. I like the 4-2-3-1 formation but we do need something different in those wide attacking positions, and we need more in an attacking sense from one of the midfield 2 than we get when its Mascherano and Alonso, and if we play Gerrard there we need more from the 2nd striker than Keane has given us.

There are a few biggish clubs in that position though, Man City, Spurs, Newcastle, if somebody like Man City came in for him im sure hed be tempted to go especially as it looks like for whatever reason Rafa doesn't trust him im sure he'd rather be playing. But hes no good to us playing like he has been or not being used, we could still get decent money for him and who knows 1 good signing at this stage in the season could kick start us.

If hes not going to play or if hes going to be an unused sub lets sell him now when there are several teams panicking over possible relegation and use that money to bring in somebody else that could give us the boost creatively we need. Looking at the market currently there are teams out there with money and with more than half the league at risk from relegation there are some big clubs that may be prepared to pay over the odds for him. But hes useless to use not playing or on the bench or playing poorly when he is picked.

If we're going to stick with the 4-2-3-1 we need better quality in the 2 wide positions in terms of pace and flair. If Gerrard is going to play behind Torres we also need another central midfielder that can come in and support the play and chip in with goals when we don't need 2 holding midfielders (like Gareth Barry) maybe this is why Rafa wanted Barry before Keane because he wanted somebody aside from Gerrard that could play central midfield and get forward to support the forwards and chip in with goals and assists. If Rafa isn't going to change his ideals in wanting a very solid team thats tough to break down then we certainly need more quality in those attacking positions. In the formation theres only really 4 attacking positions, 2 of those are Torres and Gerrard which is obviously very good, the other 2 could be improved upon however well Riera and Kuyt have done, especially the wide right position.

We're a defensive team with 2 world class attacking players they're an even more defensive team with 1 pretty good attacking player (Cahill) playing against them is never going to be pretty or easy because they get men behind the ball, defend well and are dangerous on set plays. These games are always going be tight because both managers are pretty defensive and both teams are very strong defensively. We should have enough quality to beat them and over 2 games we've been better but we lack creativity which everybody knows.

Everton didnt want to try and play today and when that happens its never easy, it is true that we lack that creativity which makes it even more difficult against this type of side. Rafa isn't the type of manager to load his team with attacking creative players but he needs to understand fast that in the PL this is going to happen most weeks so either we get better quality in the 3 or 4 attacking positions we have in this formation or he needs to give more freedom to the fullbacks or just have 1 holding midfielder in there instead of 2.

The strange thing is because of the relative strength of the dollar even in this climate they can do pretty well out of this whole fiasco, you'd think they'd be thanking their lucky stars they can walk away from this at a time of severe financial uncertainty with a decent profit. If they do get too greedy there is certainly a chance they'll lose plenty which would be some sort of karma in action.

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/...l_Takeover.html Not a lot new here but they say Dubai aren't out of the picture. If it is true that they're going to struggle to refinance in July it would make sense to wait as long as possible until they have no option. The only real reason that wouldn't happen is if you have more than 1 interested party in which case it could turn into whose prepared to pay the most. But it certainly looks like the longer you wait the cheaper and cheaper the potential deal becomes. Maybe its too hopeful to think G+H won't get the profit they're hoping for but you never know.

Kuyt has to be kept for the reasons explained he does well on the right and is a perfectly good 3rd choice striker if your playing 2 up front. We do have players we can sell and hopefully 1 or 2 like Insua step up and that can save us millions in the transfer market. Id personally like to see somebody like Maxi Rodriguez for that wide right position.

lots of attacking players there looks like 3 at the back to me with the width being wingers not wing backs. Something like.... ..........................................Gulacsi............................................ ................Darby...............San Jose......................Mendy............. ................................Spearing.........Plessis.............................. El Zahr...............................Pacheco..............................Weijl .............................Ngog.................Nemeth..........................

cos its a loan i guess that means he can't play against us right?

Think we might see Heskey in the summer, and Keane sold and that money used to strengthen maybe wide right. Also think Gareth Barry would make a difference he certainly gets forward much more than both Mascherano and Alonso and in those games where you don't need 2 holding midfielders you can play Barry without having to break up the Gerrard / Torres combination.

It depends how we want to play, the defensive strength of the team is a given now, we have a very good GK, 4 very good CBs good defensive fullbacks and 2 of the best holding midfielders in Europe in Alonso and Mascherano. Because Rafa likes that solidity, the attacking threats come from the forward, the support striker and the 2 wide players. At the moment i think 2 of those 4 positions are excellent and while both Riera and Kuyt are good solid players its probably in these areas we need to improve if this is how we're going to play. The other option is to sign a number 10 type player to play the support striker position and use Gerrard in the midfield 2 which gives us another attacking threat. But i think the way Rafa wants this team to play we're always going to be relying on 3 or 4 players for the vast majority of our attacking play at the moment 2 of the 4 are of the required level. I think a wide right player and either a 2nd striker or more attacking type central midfielder like Gareth Barry should be the priority in the summer.