My gripe with Rafa

[FC Showster]

Is motivation + mentality. In the last two games when we've really went at teams they've s*** themselves and we've swarmed all over them. A deflection from knee to post stopped us from getting a point mid-week and Torres header got us one today.

 

Why are we waiting until the last 10 minutes to do this? Someone pointed out that at the start of the season we were hunting in packs and pressing the opposition high, winning the ball early and getting at them. Now we seem to be sitting off and allowing them to play more. You can blame Gerrard for this if you want but for me the buck stops with the manager.

 

In Europe he's had great success at hitting teams with a super high tempo for 20 mins, grabbing goals and then becoming more compact and difficult to break down (Juve) but that is not the way to win the league, at least not this one.

 

I'm genuinely concerned that he still hasn't cottened on to the nature of the league in England and is more concerned with being hard to beat

[Cooldude]

It's the players' fault today. The team started very very well in the first half, created many good chances and they should've been at least 2-0 up

 

Then the centre backs went to sleep for 5 mins and we were behind for some unknown f***ing reason

 

Rafa made all the right subs, but it was the players who had to show urgency to chase the game, but it was hardly there for a while

[Coyler]

Just a s***ty period. If we were flying that fecked-up chance between Torres and Gerrard and Voronin would have put us 2-0 up and (even) we (probably) wouldn't have let Spurs back in.

[dorgie]

Why are we waiting until the last 10 minutes to do this?

 

We didn't batter them for the last 10 minutes, neither did we batter Marseilles for the last 10 minutes (more like 2 minutes).

[FC Showster]

We didn't batter them for the last 10 minutes, neither did we batter Marseilles for the last 10 minutes (more like 2 minutes).

 

Fair enough but my recollection of Weds night and the impression I got of today's game via 5live was opposition teams who couldn't keep hold of the ball and we were launching attack after attack. I could be wrong though

[Kahnee]

Someone pointed out that at the start of the season we were hunting in packs and pressing the opposition high, winning the ball early and getting at them. Now we seem to be sitting off and allowing them to play more.

 

The common denominator here being Agger...

[Conor]

Has Agger bacome that important? That he dictates how we press the opposition?

[mooks]

Fair enough but my recollection of Weds night and the impression I got of today's game via 5live was opposition teams who couldn't keep hold of the ball and we were launching attack after attack. I could be wrong though

Teams who are holding one-goal leads get nervous in the closing stages. It happens to us all the time, it doesn't mean the opposition weren't trying for the first 85 minutes.