Priorities? The order of importance to something or someone. Yesterday, Rafael Benitez chose to prioritize the Europa League over the Champions League. The way the team was set out said it all. And this statement is not just about the Torres substitution, it encompasses many mistakes that resulted in our inability to break down a team that allowed us onto them, again. Many posters have stated that they felt this was an attacking team, well, the first half, barring the Rodriguez crossbar strike, showed very little attacking intent at all. Any team that Rafa puts out that includes Kuyt and Lucas, we may as well start with nine men. The only reason i can think that Mascherano and Agger were rested, would have been due to the midweek excursion at Benfica. But didn't Gerrard, Torres, Johnson, Insua, Lucas, Carragher and Kuyt play too? Insua is getting raped every game he plays, it's getting embarassing to watch and teams are targetting our full backs more than ever.
Yesterday was an awkward encounter to watch, 2 counter attacking teams locking horns. While the onus is usually on the home team to attack, Birmingham were quite happy to let us onto them, a tactic they use frequently against the big sides, frustrate and stifle, pretty much the same style as Rafa employs. I feel that yesterday the onus was on us to attack, we were the side still in with a chance of Champions League qualification, Birmingham, comfortably mid table and mission accomplished, their mission?, to stay in the Premier League. Birmingham were quite happy to let us have the ball, and in the first half we did F**k all with it. I have watched the game twice, once via internet stream yesterday ( sh*t picture ) and today ( LFC TV ). It wasn't pretty second time around, in fact it just highlighted our inadequacies even more.
I've gone on about it all season, and i'll keep going on about it until it improves or Rafa changes it, the Lucas and Kuyt scenario. A lot of forumites are still in love with Lucas and Kuyt, and that is great for them, but i'm sure i'm watching a different game then. Kyrgiakos and Carragher were still hoofing the ball over the top of the midfield yesterday, and i am of the assumption that it is more preferable in their eyes than passing it to Lucas. I can see why they do it, ninety percent of the time it gets hit straight back to them anyway, so why bother?. I made a point of focussing more on Lucas' and Kuyt's gameplay to give a more informed assessment of their performances, what i saw was shocking. Players seem to not want to pass to Lucas when he is available, more often than not because he never makes space for himself. He is so static it's unbelievable. Gerrard, Maxi, Yossi, nobody even looked at him when they had the ball. Please don't percieve this to be a witch hunt, feel free to watch the game again and you'll see what i mean. Kuyt was substandard again, he can't even do the basics, yet he's always trying the complex, and please, no more YouTube clips of last season, that's gone.
The first half, well there's nothing of note to post about, lots of possession, passed it around a lot, did F**k all with it, Birmingham were happy that we posed no real threat, we were playing into their hands.
Second half, what changed the complexion? Steven Gerrard did. That goal in the 47th minute changed everything. A brilliantly taken goal by Gerrard and an excellent pass from Johnson
. Birmingham's game plan went out of the window, they had no choice but to come out and attack us. We started attacking the right flank with some purpose, Johnson coming into the game more. Then Birmingham struck, how the F**k McFadden got that cross in i'll never know. He was surrounded by Kyrgiakos, Insua and Yossi, this in turn drew Johnson into the middle, Carragher was drawn over too and Maxi should have picked up Ridgewell, or at least warned Johnson of his presence. The game opened up from here, and this is why i found the Torres substitution all the more bewildering. In all fairness to Torres, he was marked out of the game by 2 men, Johnson and Dan, an aspect we should have utilised to our advantage by involving Kuyt more, we didn't though. And when we did, he just did his usual dilly dally bollocks and killed the pace and fluidity. A great example of this when Lucas played a forward pass!, yes that's right, through to Kuyt and he just watched it go past him!. This pass just happened before the turning point of the game for me.
And after watching this calamitous play, and with Torres getting a bit more space due to the change in focus from Birmingham, Rafa takes Torres off in the 64th minute! Now if it had still been 0-0 at this point and we were going nowhere, then i'd have advocated the decision. The fact that Birmingham opened up more after their equaliser was indicative of the probability that they were confident of getting another goal and would play into our hands. And that's what did happen. Their tails were up and we exposed this.
Shortly after coming on, Johnson put in a brilliant cross for NGog and he should have least got the header on target, he didn't. Would Torres have scored it? We'll never know, but he is a much better aerial exponent than NGog is. Directly from this play Birmingham should have scored, Bowyer missed a sitter, a poor clearance from Insua, who had come across to cover Johnson after the NGog chance. Then Kuyt had a simple header back across goal to Maxi or NGog, he tried to score with his head instead. Then Rafa took Yossi off for Babel on 70 minutes. Yossi is a good player, i like him, but only in the middle of the pitch he is effective for us. Time after time he kept coming inside, just following his instinct, but forced to go against that instinct by poor team selection. On 72 minutes, another glorious chance for NGog, he put it wide, was it too much to expect him to put it on target?
We were now in the ascendency, Birmingham's back four were tired, an afternoon of virtual containment football was tiring them out. We had fresh legs out there, we should have finished them off. Babel made another break throught the middle, laid it off to NGog and ran on, NGog fu**ed the return up. Babel was coming into the game even more, another break down the left, gave it to Kuyt, Kuyt tried to do a girly little backflick, ended up standing on the ball and giving it to Dan and set up a counter attack for Birmingham, when all he had to do was a simple sidefoot back to Babel. Rafa then saw sense and too Kuyt off after 80 minutes of sh*te! Again, our supposed saviour gets 10 minutes to try and change the game, excellent idea! Babel again, broke down the left and put NGog in to cross to Maxi, who again should have scored, but hit it straight at Aquilani! There was a 2 foot gap to aim at, Hart was in no man's land.
The last five minutes were frantic. Gerrard urging us on, getting frustrated with the lack of movement around him. NGog getting a great chance to put Aquilani in but putting it behind him, Gerrard almost putting it in the top corner, then Maxi should have hit the target but blazed it over. Babel had another great chance, but put it in the side netting from a tight angle. Then came the golden chance, probably the pass of the season from Gerrard, NGog pulled it down brilliantly and then hit it F***ing straight at Joe Hart! Now i know we can't say what might have happened had Torres been on the pitch, but the glaring mistake is this, he WASN'T.
I feel Rafa should have gone with Babel up top with Torres from the off, this would have taken the focus off Torres slightly as Babel's pace would also have worried Dan and Johnson. Kuyt has no pace, so barring an aerial threat, Kuyt was basically impotent.
I'm going to make a few comments here now, and i expect a few neg's in all honesty, and the usual posse of forumites who usually gather round posters who go against the grain, systematically victimising people who dare speak out against Rafa. I'll probably get a ban too, but F**k it.
Rafa has spent over £230 million since his arrival in 2004. Never mind the F***ing net spend bollocks, never mind the owners, never mind the buy to sell. He has spent £230 million, regardless of how much he has recouped, he has spent that money. Over 75 signings in five years, that's roughly fifteen players a season. He chose to buy quantity over quality, he weighed up the options, and he made the choice. Nobody else did, Rafa did. Considering that the owners have pulled the purse strings in the last 2-3 seasons then that just highlights how wrong he got it the seasons before. From 75 players, you'd expect him to be able to field a pretty strong 25 man squad, that's excluding the current squad. Gerrard and Carra were already here. Roughly 75 players have come and gone.
His persistence this season with Lucas this season has cost us many games, we can bleat all we like about bad luck etc. Other teams have had bad luck too. Dirk Kuyt has been w*nk, we have Pacheco chomping at the bit, yet it is now a possibility that he may go on loan to Celtic! Kuyt may give his all, but his technical ability this season has been akin to Lucas'. What's different this season to last? Our defence has been completely altered and our central midfield unit is imbalanced, too much defence and nowhere near enough offence. Am i alone in seeing this? Am i the only one who thinks that Lucas isn't fit to wear the shirt? Am i the only one that cringes when i see Kuyt fail to control the ball again and again and again.
This may not sound like the statement of a man that supports Rafa, but i assure you it is. I love Rafa, i love that he loves this club, i feel for him when things go wrong, i respect him for sticking with us when he could so easily just F**k off to Madrid and build his own dynasty. My problem is this, he is making it harder for himself with every game that passes, we are expecting change, we are not seeing change. His refusal to play youngsters, why not give Kelly a shot at left back?, i know he's a right back, but what's to lose. Insua is out on his feet, he's only getting this run due to the injuries of Aurelio. Put Kelly right back and Johnson or Carra to left back. Drop Kuyt, pick Pacheco. Give Yossi a crack in the middle. Give Babel a try up top with Torres if you want to play a 4-4-2. Just try something different.
There's an old saying. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it's broke?........................
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What do you do if it's broke Rafa?........................
.. Pray tell.
