[StevieH]

Originally Posted by Magic_H Rafa is currently dead man walking in my opinion. We were in a run similar to now when rafa spat the dummy and made his very public demands about transfer money and transfer targets. The yanks had obviously thought at that point, do we trust this man with our money? We may not make the CL KO stages which could cost us 15m? We went on a mini run which got us into the CL group stages and within 6pts of the leaders and bought him some more time. If we could have consolidated the run into the man u game and throughout the Christmas period, I reckon he would have been given pretty much a free reign to sign who he liked in the transfer market. Unfortunately, we have gone back into our inconsistent ways and I cannot see him being given money of any note to sign big name players. We are currently 12 pts behind the leaders and with man u, Chelsea and arsenal away all still to come, I forecast we will end up about 24pts off the top come the end of the season. Some of the players must shoulder the blame for not performing of course, but he is the one who buys the players, picks the team, chooses the tactics and motivates them. Some of the players are plainly not good enough, and rafa is becoming very stubborn towards sticking with them(eg kuyt) when they clearly aren’t producing. Some of the team selections, tactics, substitutions have had me baffled, none more so than a game we actually won! The 2-1 derby win is the game im talking about. We got our selection, tactics and team all wrong. Gerrard, was our best player by a mile, and created a pen which also turned the game by getting hibbert sent off. He was our one player who looked like creating something, and he took him off 5 mins later for ‘showing too much passion’. We went onto get another pen in the last minute and then got away with one at our end. We got out of jail, and won our local derby but I didn’t feel like celebrating much and ive never felt so angry after actually beating everton! Rafa could then justify his terrible decisions he made, but it was just a matter of time before it would catch up with us again. I never bought a ticket for the Cardiff league cup game because I knew as soon as we drew a decent side, we would play a shadow side and go out the competition. We were cheated out of a possible 2 legged semi against everton, by the bad side he fielded, because rafa wanted to keep our players fresh for the run in to the league season. How foolish does that look now? Our last few months of the season will be like testimonial games as we struggle to motivate ourselves for a 4th place at best finish. Rafa just does not be able to grasp the fact that you have to be positive and go for wins in the premiership to stay in touch. Man U and Arsenal may lose and draw some games, but they go for wins in all their games and it eventually pays dividends. Rafa is happy to settle for a draw in some matches or close games out 1-0 (last night for instance) and once in that mindset, its hard to go back on the attack if the other team sneaks a goal. 1 of our 2 league defeats and 4 or 5 of our 8 draws could have been wins, if we would have picked our strongest team, and played with attacking intent, so ultimately, rafa is too blame. We haven’t got the best players in the world in some positions, but you have to do the best with what you have got, and be positive with it, and I don’t think rafa does that enough. Im just not convinced he has the right mentality to win the prem. 2 holding players and 1 upfront is just not necessary against the lower teams, but rafa, safety 1st by nature just doesn’t seem to want to let the reigns off. In cup competitions, particularly Europe , rafa and his teams, are a different animal. We get it spot on, pretty much most of the time, and If rafa wants to get another crack next season, our season hinges on us going all the way to Moscow and probably winning the thing. Anything else, and the season will be judged as a failure, and Im afraid rafa could very well be out of a job. I think rafa has done some great things for Liverpool , and I would like to see him given one more year to prove he can go the extra mile and win us the league. Rafa talks quite often about possibilities and mentality and I think it will take a change in his, for us to win the league.

Rafa won't change. All managers are stubborn and stick to their principles & that is why the buck stops with them.