Too Much Choice?

[Leo No.8]

At the start of the season everyone thought this was the year we'd give Chelsea a real run for their money because we'd assembled such a strong squad. We wre all incredibly excited and positive. A quarter of the season gone and all that joy has turned to misery. Could it be though that actually having so many top class players at his disposal is what is causing the major problems at the moment, and that big, strong squad we were so made up about has become Benitez's downfall.

 

Rafa's rotation has gone into absolute overdrive - I know its been ninety-something games since he's played the same team, but I'll bet if you looked at last season the changes would have been one or two at a time mostly with certain positions being fairly set in stone.

 

The defence was almost always Reina, Riise, Hyypia, Carragher, Finnan with a few games for Traore, Kromkamp and Warnock.

 

The midfield was almost always Alonso and Sissoko in the middle with Gerrard on the right and Kewell on the left, with occasional games for Hamann in the middle and Garcia and Cisse filling in out wide as well as up front.

 

Up front you saw Crouch start most games with Morientes, latterly Fowler and the two mentioned above.

 

However this season we're seeing a ridiculous number of changes. Because Rafa feels he has good quality everywhere, he changes it absolutely at will, often with the opposition in mind rather than putting out our best team possible. We've seen all three central defenders sit games out, and no settled combination of any pairing, Aurelio on the left of defence and midfield, Riise on the left of defence and midfield, Gonzalez out there then sitting out loads of games, Pennant on the right, Gerrard on the left, in the middle, off the forward and on the right, whilst up front any different number of combinations of Crouch, Garcia, Fowler (who started the first game and has since completely disappeared), Kuyt and Bellamy.

 

Players have been rested when in form (Crouch in particular), played again and again whislt out of form (Bellamy for a long spell), moved all over the place and played in several different positions. The only positions in the team which have been fairly consistent are the central pairing of Alonso and Sissoko, keeper Reina and right-back Finnan (ironically, apart from Sissoko all of those players have been below par this season). Four positions only ocassionally rotated, with the rest completely different from week to week, players everywhere, all over the bloody place.

 

Rafa is always thought of as a methodical, meticulous man and I know all of the changes have been with certain plans in mind. Players' fitness, the opposition (such as playing Gerrard on the left against Boulharouz) etc etc, but if you actually take a step back and look at our teams and our players, forget about the opposition and just look at our teams and the roles players have fulfilled, it is absolute chaos, a complete mess.

 

There is no cohesion, no fluency and over-rotation is the reason. We have enough quality to get the ball up to the final third, but from there on in we don't even look like putting together the kind of passing needed to get behind defences. Is it any wonder we've seen some of the sloppiest passing from a Liverpool team for years? They haven't got a clue what the player in front or next to them is going to do next, because its someone different every week.

 

I honestly feel Rafa has too good a squad this year, and its causing him to make a real mess of things. In truth, certain players' form should make things easy for him for the next couple of months. Pennant after a bright start has been woeful in his last few games and should be left on the bench. Aurelio has looked comletely at odds with the English game and should be left on the bench. Gonzalez has shown some promise and should be given a run in the team whilst Crouch is easily our top scorer this season and continuing to leave him out every time he scores goals is just downright ridiculous.

 

In all honesty I'm not actually agreeing with the constant media bleating about the number of games without an unchanged line-up. I don't care that Rafa hasn't changed his team for nearly a hundred games. I don't care if he doesn't keep the same team for another hundred games. But what I do want to see is in-form players keeping their places and far, far less rotation from game to game. We looked a top class team last year with a couple of changes here and there because they were allowed to gel as a unit.

 

Football isn't a game of chess - anyone who has played or watched football at any level knows the importance of players learning each others games and being allowed to establish a run of form in a certain position. You can't move the players round like chess pieces and expect them to perform to their maximum capability.

 

Ironically Rafa has always emphasised 'team, team. team' in all his interviews, its one of the words he always emphasises. What he can't seem to see is his over-rotation is making us anything but a team. We're just a load of individual players who can't play together which makes for shocking viewing and terrible results.

 

He has incredibly strong support regardless of this poor run - Rafa now has to take a careful look at his philosophy or risk making a complete mess of it all.

Edited October 24, 2006 by Leo No.8

[Rory Fitzgerald]

Leo, I agree with you that we have a big squad thus the ability to change players around.

 

However, a strong squad is different to a big squad and at the moment I feel that is where we are being let down. Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that we have a weak squad or anything like it but that we are bringing in players that are off form and sacrificing the stability we had from last season.

 

I think we all recognised that we had a very settled team from October onwards (prior to that we even dabled in 4-5-1, but reverted Mori and Crouch up front) last season. Now we find that Gerrard is being shifted around, Bellamy is not on form despite his efforts, Gonzalez and Aurelio have not enhanced left midfield and that is saying something considering its Kewell they are replacing. That accounts for the poor showings going forward.

 

At the back however, we have had a settled back 4 and Agger's addition in certain games has enhanced that rather than detracted, so that leaves left back which has never been our strongest anyway.

 

I think there are 2 reasons. Going forward it can be put to rotation whilst at the back, some players are off form whilst the new players in midfield are not strenghtening our wide area's by not working back.

 

Add to that, nobody has improved on last season and some are playing 10% to 20% below what they can play.

 

All in all, it rests at Benitez's door to sort it all out and I retain my confidence that he will.

[Guest AnfieldGrass]

"has become Benitez's downfall."

 

I didn't realise Rafa had fallen. Has he been sacked? Is it the end of the season and we got no trophies? Dear god did I sleep for two years?

 

Please don't make such sensational comments, Rafa is far from being a fallen figure. 6 finals reached, 4 won in his tenure of just over 2 years. All along doing what he's always done with rotation, zonal marking, tactics. Convenient fallback arguments whenevr we have a minor slump. A string of wins and things will be different, no need to panic just yet.

[Guest ziggystardust]

in 10 words or less please, i have a life you know.

[psl]

Don't like all this six finals reached stuff. Three finals reached, two won.

[passater]

Don't like all this six finals reached stuff. Three finals reached, two won.

 

Agree. Its very GH.

[Puskas]

in 10 words or less please, i have a life you know.

Rotation is bad

[fred milne]

I'll bet if you looked at last season the changes would have been one or two at a time mostly with certain positions being fairly set in stone.

 

The defence was almost always Reina, Riise, Hyypia, Carragher, Finnan with a few games for Traore, Kromkamp and Warnock.

 

The midfield was almost always Alonso and Sissoko in the middle with Gerrard on the right and Kewell on the left, with occasional games for Hamann in the middle and Garcia and Cisse filling in out wide as well as up front.

 

Up front you saw Crouch start most games with Morientes, latterly Fowler and the two mentioned above.

I think that's right - at least during the two runs we went on.

[Raj]

Don't like all this six finals reached stuff. Three finals reached, two won.

 

Fair enough, but I would imagine he mentions it as you normally have to win something of substance to play in the Charity Shield, Super Cup or World Club Championship.

Edited October 25, 2006 by roegahnn

[Earl Hafler]

I think that's right - at least during the two runs we went on.

 

It is. We started the season with Josemi and Traore ( due to injuries ) and around October time it was mainly Finnan, Hyypia, Carra and Riise, with Warnock or Traore coming in at left back if Riise was in midfield or rested.

 

This season Agger has been pushing for a place and so the centre backs have been rotated a little and Rafa has been dropping Crouch after scoring. I don't think he did that last season.