Rafa and the big picture

ion · February 28, 2006

It's just a theory, but it's the way I think Rafa sees things... I think, despite the "take the next game as it comes" philosophy, that he's always looking at the longer term, particularly until he achieves his own squad. He's still weeding out players, and wants to see how they respond, not how well they play when we are 3-0 up at home, that tells us nothing, but how well they respond under real pressure, hence the substitutions of defenders in the final minutes of tight matches. He wants to see who can genuinely handle the pressure and take on what has been learnt in training immediately on the pitch and who can't. We all know he believes it's a squad game now, and so he's interested in finding out who his best squad is, not who his best 11 is. Hence the constant changes in defence when we are one-nil up with only minutes to play. Bear with me, it's just a theory, and I'd like to know how many agree... When we had to make up points to get us to where we are we saw far fewer changes, but now they are returning again. At the moment it would look like fourth would be a certainty at least. I don't know what value Rafa puts on second or fourth, but I suspect that in his long-term vision second is not a priority. Which leads me to two points: he'll still be testing out defenders in the moments of most extreme pressure, so we can expect more substitutions along those lines, in the last few minutes of tense matches, as he can use the points cushion to test these players... secondly the striker situation.. I think he believes that if Morientes can gain some confidence in front of goal it will benefit us more in the long-term, meaning the next couple of years, not necessarily as a first choice striker, but as one who can contribute... bringing us to Cisse... He obviously believes him to be a lost cause as a striker, for a miriad of reasons. It may be that bringing Cisse on last Sunday would have brought us another goal, as many have argued, but I suspect that Rafa is looking at the points difference between us and those below us and using it as a chance to test those who he thinks may have something to contribute in the future. In other words, we may drop, say, ten points, testing out the squad, but it will serve us well next season. And he may be thinking that the dropping of those points can be afforded, and will be rewarded next season when he has a perfect idea of who and who can't serve the club.

Maldini · February 28, 2006

This post is not viewable to guests.

You can sign in to your account at the login page here