I really don't know what happened at half time yesterday, but whatever it was, it certainly didn't have a positive effect. Don't really want to analyse this performance too much, so i'm going to try and keep it short and sweet.
We are Liverpool Football Club, we were at home against what can only be described as a very fragile Arsenal side. A side that can't handle any physical encounters, this has been proven a few times already this season. A lot of fans have written our title chances off this season, not many expect us to win the title. Effectively we had nothing to lose going into this game. United and Chelsea had both dropped points this weekend and offered the teams around them a chance to make up some ground.
We had to go for the throat, and this is where Rafa fails tactically. I said in the pre-match thread that whether Aquilani started or not would be key to the result. I think the reason we lost is that Rafa chose the 'safe' option again. Aquilani should have started, whether that be in the middle with Masch or in the hole behind Torres. We totally dominated the first half, but for all our possession we could only go in at the break one goal to the good. We should have been out of sight, at least 3-0 up, but again, our lack of creativity shone to the fore.
Dirk Kuyt? F**k me, the lad has been total sh*te this season, but Rafa still refuses to drop him. And please let's not go on about the goal he scored, it was luck from a rebound, the rest of the match he was F***ing useless. His persistence with Lucas is killing our season, he is suffocating us. If Aquilani had started the game we would have been out of sight by half time. It's pointless bringing him on with twenty odd minutes to go and expecting him to turn around a 2-1 deficit.
Whether Rafa went for the jugular yesterday was key to our season, he failed to do that. Aquilani had to start, Kuyt had to be dropped, Lucas had to be dropped, none of these happened. As much as i back Rafa, his negative tactics are contributing to the lack of confidence in the side.
This season is slowly looking like a write-off already, all the more reason for Rafa to say, "F**k this, let's go all out and attack, attack, attack". We have nothing to lose now, surely he must see this.
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