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Benitez fury over stars attitude


terry mac
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Benitez fury over stars attitude Oct 24 2005

 

 

 

 

By Chris Bascombe, Liverpool Echo

 

 

 

 

 

LIVID Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez staged a Melwood summit yesterday where he told his under-performing players "We need to change our attitude."

 

 

 

 

Story continues

 

 

 

The Reds boss says no-one should be absolved from blame for a lack-lustre first half display - including himself and his staff.

 

 

Benitez held a Melwood summit on Sunday and forced his players to watch their 45 minute horror show again.

 

 

"We had more determination in the second half, but the first half was the same kind of performance away from home as last year," conceded the manager.

 

 

"Everyone must understand these kinds of games are important. It's acceptable to play at the same level as Chelsea and lose, but it's not acceptable to play Fulham, whom we know we are better than, and come away with nothing.

 

 

"It was as though we didn't understand the importance of the game in the first half. Only in the second was there a response, and then I felt it was a question of time whether we would score, but their keeper made a lot of saves.

 

 

"Last season we made a lot of mistakes and I thought we were learning from them. We've started strongly in other away games and I didn't expect to see us play like this again after last year.

 

 

"This is our first defeat away this year and we can't afford to make the same mistakes in future.

 

 

It's important the players under-stand we can't approach games in this way."

Benitez has questioned the commitment of his team in the first half at Craven Cottage.

 

 

 

 

Story continues

 

 

 

"It's not just the players who need to improve, but all of us. I include the staff, the players, everyone," said Benitez.

 

 

"We all know we need to change the attitude, particularly after European games. Yesterday we all spoke and watched the match again. The performance of the team was bad in terms of the aggressiveness of the players.

 

 

"We had a lot of the ball, and controlled the play, but didn't show enough until the second half. We've had these problems before after a Champions League game.

 

 

"We've all seen the big mistake we made with our first half performance and now we need to correct it."

 

 

Benitez will ring the changes for tomorrow's Carling Cup trip to Crystal Palace - but an experienced side is expected at Selhurst Park.

 

 

Youngsters David Raven, Zak Whitbread, Darren Potter and Scott Carson are likely to feature in the cup tie, but Benitez won't be fielding a full reserve side as he did in the notorious FA Cup defeat at Burnley.

 

 

Senior players such as Bolo Zenden, Stephen Warnock and Peter Crouch, who all missed the loss to Fulham on Saturday, are also expected to play.

 

 

Skipper Steven Gerrard may also be included in the travelling party. A decision will be made after training today.

 

 

Gerrard pulled out of the squad for the Fulham game late on after sensing his calf injury wasn't fully recovered.

 

 

But he's trained as normal over the weekend and could be given a run-out against Ian Dowie's side.

 

 

Jamie Carragher won't be involved tomorrow.

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I really have no idea what he means by "controlling the game". Knocking it about between the midfield and defense, maybe? Strangling the game in the middle of the park?

 

For me, controlling the game should be about asserting your superiority on your opponents by outworking them and out-passing them in order to create chances. We're not really doing any of that, and that's why we're not winning games.

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If he wants a team then criticize and praise them as a unit rather than the bi-daily Rafa backs one of luvvies announcements.

 

Eh?

 

"It's not just the players who need to improve, but all of us. I include the staff, the players, everyone," said Benitez."

 

No?

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im hoping your Raven takes his chance, i seen his last year, i think it was only the friendly against Wrexham, Rafas first game in charge, but ive really liked the look of him since

 

interesting in this game tomorrow, not too worried about the result, but id like to see some young lads grasp their chance

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I really have no idea what he means by "controlling the game". Knocking it about between the midfield and defense, maybe? Strangling the game in the middle of the park?

 

For me, controlling the game should be about asserting your superiority on your opponents by outworking them and out-passing them in order to create chances. We're not really doing any of that, and that's why we're not winning games.

 

I think a lot of it is about keeping the ball, not giving away any chances so as to deprive the opposition of encouragement and also to get the home fans tetchy and/or quiet so the home team actually start to have a disadvantage, not an advantage.

 

If you look as the shots on target in each of our games this year we have been pretty dominant, we need to be more clinical in the final third and results will start flowing.

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I think a lot of it is about keeping the ball, not giving away any chances so as to deprive the opposition of encouragement and also to get the home fans tetchy and/or quiet so the home team actually start to have a disadvantage, not an advantage.

 

If you look as the shots on target in each of our games this year we have been pretty dominant, we need to be more clinical in the final third and results will start flowing.

You're not allowed to be sensible and rational on here Stu, keep your opinions to yourself eh will ya...... :|

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I really have no idea what he means by "controlling the game". Knocking it about between the midfield and defense, maybe? Strangling the game in the middle of the park?

 

 

He plays a lot of Chess apparently, as I do myself. Sometimes in Chess you think you are "controlling the game" because all your pieces are in safe positions, but you're not actually tearing your opponent apart. You think you are in a strong position and it's only a matter of time before you break through to win.

 

Then, one mistake and the game is beyond recovery.

 

Put the board away until June Rafa, before the LFC board checkmates you.

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when he talks about controlling the game does it also mean possession even against chelsea I am sure the stats came out to say we had more of the ball ,same with fulham ,this has happened a lot since benitez came in and will continue to happen ,does this really mean we are controlling the game though ? whats the point especially if you lack fire power upfront.

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I'm not sure how they measure "possession" for those stats. Does it mean the time the team has the ball compared to the opponents. If a defender dwells on the ball for 5 seconds because he hasn't got a clue who to pass to, while the opponent takes 4 seconds to transfer from defence to attack and score, is the former superior in possession?

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I'm not sure how they measure "possession" for those stats. Does it mean the time the team has the ball compared to the opponents. If a defender dwells on the ball for 5 seconds because he hasn't got a clue who to pass to, while the opponent takes 4 seconds to transfer from defence to attack and score, is the former superior in possession?

I've always assumed that to be the case. Anything else would be really surprising imo.

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I'm not sure how they measure "possession" for those stats. Does it mean the time the team has the ball compared to the opponents. If a defender dwells on the ball for 5 seconds because he hasn't got a clue who to pass to, while the opponent takes 4 seconds to transfer from defence to attack and score, is the former superior in possession?

 

Yes, and that's why there's no obvious connection between possession and winning games. It's what you do with the ball that matters, not how long you keep it. It's a bit like Rashid's postings on here :whistle:

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