Liverpool v Lyon (20/10/09)

[Carra_is_legend]

The right turn here would be for Rafa to come out and say "My fault, got the second half all wrong, the substitutions did not work". Take the pressure off the players, he has a thick skin, now is the time to use it.

 

Last night was weird, the first half went as I expected, a team doing poorly scraping its way into form, untidy performance, but a lot of positives. Then there was the 2nd half, all hell broke loose. The team simply capitulated, the manager got it all wrong, hard to understand. Take for example Ngog, he got clearly tired around 60 minute mark, kept on trying, but simply had no legs as he has not played much. Easy thing to do is to put Babel in, at least there would be someone running around. And the Benayoun sub, the goals conceded, basic simple errors.

 

Again, as there's no point blaming the players now, the manager should blame himself, in public, wipe the sheet clean. Then get the players ready for the weekend. I do not expect a win against the Mancs, but I expect to see a team that will die for the shirt and that will show it. That would be a start...

 

I'm not sure Rafa blaming himself in public, before the United game, is a good idea. The press will have a field day with that. They will come out with all sort of crap like Rafa's lost it, Rafa looking to walk, Rafa looking to get sacked so he can get a pay off etc.

 

Best thing is, put the head down, as you said show they die for the shirt against United on Sunday. I don't think many people expect us to win against them so in a strange way, the pressure should be off the players on Sunday. Put in a great shift, make it as hard as possible for them and see what comes our way. You never know, we might scrap something out of the game and then kick on from there.

 

I felt totally gutted seeing Rafa's face at the end of the game last night. He looks totally deflated. I had a very heavy heart seeing him in that kind of a mood. I'm still not sure which is better option for the club - sacking him or keeping him. But he certainly deserves more from those players.

 

Still, it could have been totally different yesterday had Aurelio put that header away or had N'Gog hit the target instead of fluffing it.

 

Time for all the players to get up and show what we are made of. Time for the manager to stop making silly mistakes. Time for grit and determination.

[Anubis]

I haven't read the thread because I can imagine what it's like, but my twopenny worth is thus.

 

We started the game in a pretty pedestrian fashion, and up until we actually scored looked like a team very low on confidence who were desperate not to make a mistake. And after Gerrard went off we looked like a team who didn't know what to do next.

 

After we scored we looked like a completely different team. It's amazing what a goal can do, and suddenly all over the pitch (bar Insua) we had some self-belief and took the game to them. This continued into the beginning of the second half but gradually Lyon came back into it as we took our foot off the pedal. When they equalised, we deflated like a balloon which'd hit by nail. All the confidence we'd gained went south, and so did the reult.

 

It was a poor decision by Raf to take Benayoun off. I don't have a problem with him bringing Voronin on, but that only made sense if Benny stayed on the pitch and N'gog or Kuyt made way. Voronin is pretty good at threading little balls through defenders, and Benayoun is very good at getting onto them - so that would have made sense. But it was a poor decision by Rafa and it limited our attacking play. At that point N'gog was completely out of it in terms of having any effect so it would have made sense had he gone.

 

Martin Kelly. Up until we scored he was solid, but played it safe by always passing backwards and sideways. After we scored, it gave the lad some confidence and I thought hos did very well, some great skill to get past the left back and two brilliant crosses from which we probably should have scored. I was very impressed with him and I hope he gets further chances. I was gutted for him when he was injured, especially as he did it desperately trying to prevent the goal.

 

I'm a big supporter of Rafa, and I hope to god he doesn't go, but last night I think he lost the crowd at the game. All the talk I heard coming away was about the poor decision on the substitiution, and I do think he's in a precarious position now because that's the first time I've heard it expressed so openly by so many. And that decision was a very poor one.

[RoboRiise]

Sorry no I was just being critical of his role in the 2nd goal (ball watching again).

 

Ah I see my use of "personal" was misleading.

 

 

Cheers for that - in fairness to you, the problem wasn't caused by the way you expressed yourself, rather it was my failure to interpret your perfectly clear comment correctly. Obviously I had a very grumpy head on me last night and wasn't thinking especially clearly.