Jens

My dad tells me Alex Ferguson has now changed his starting eleven for 101 consecutive games. Hmmmmmmm.................

Fuck off mate.

Spot on.

WTF! Didn´t The Echo say he had signed?

What´s the verdict on him? EDIT: I tried to post a poll with this thread but fucked up. 1. Sell him, we could use the money to buy a better left winger. 2. Keep him, he brings something to the team and is good enough for us.

Reina Carra Kyrgiakos Agger Insua Lucas Mascherano Maxi Gerrard Riera Kuyt That´s the team.

People are being too negative towards the man and I think it´s because of the media. 10 months ago we arguably played our best football in this club´s history, smashing Real Madrid and Man Utd. Rafa´s been in a hell of a situation since Alonso left. He HAD to play Lucas as a regular because Aquilani was injured. And, although he is starting to look like a player now, he is not ready to play a big role for us just yet.

Please stop with the smart comments. If you don´t have something to say then shut the fuck up.

You don´t think they would pay him even more than that?

He´s said it many times, "I want to stay and fight". He´s rejected Real Madrid three times already and he will probably say no to Juventus in the summer. The question I ask myself is why? His managerial style is clearly a lot more suited to Spanish and Italian football where teams try to play football on the ground.

1. Kyrgiakos 2. Kuyt 3. Skrtel

He has impressed me. I think we do benefit from having a dominant presence like him at the back, he´s also quite quick for a big guy which is important. He´s practically made for the Premiership. I want him and Carra.

He breaks up our play everytime!

The question is who? There aren´t too many I can think of but I know fuck all about most leagues in Europe. Clichy is unrealistic and Abidal is shit, who else is there?

I´m sure you can.

...before we can pick ourselves up under Rafa. I´m his biggest fan but even I´m concerned we won´t win any silverware for a good while unless he finds a formula to pick his players up before our season has gone. I don´t want him to go though because he is a top manager when it works for him which it does more often than not. YNWA.

Riera is having a stormer. Looks very decent at whipping in free kicks and corners. Where has this come from?

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Name one manager that has gone from world class to useless in less than six months. You may not say Rafa Benitez.

Looking at Carra tonight, what the hell was he doing, letting the ball through his own legs with the Reading striker lurking behind him? Aquilani didn´t want to get stuck in, he needs to have a good look in the mirror if he wants to become a fans´favourite. I could say the same about Insua, he didn´t try his best last night. I for one will not blame the manager for this defeat. Every player knew how important the FA cup was this season.

We´ve been shit. Aquilani can´t defend and Insua can´t cross. How Rafa can have this lot building snow-men in training is beyond me.

I´ve read a number of theories to why we´re being shit this season. It´s time Jens delivered some quality stuff on this board so here goes. :lol: Our two biggest concerns are 1. We concede too many goals from set pieces 2. We´ve started to lose the midfield battle against teams To me the number 1 is directly related to the fact that we´ve lost many 6 ft players the last few seasons. Crouch, Sissoko, Hyypia and Alonso were all very useful when it came to defending corners and free kicks. The problem isn´t as much having lost them as having replaced them with short arses like Insua, Lucas, Mascherano and Benayoun. I don´t buy that zonal marking is inferior to man marking in any way. Why would a manager of Rafa´s pedigree use it if it was no good? The number 2 is a result of us having replaced Alonso with a small man like Lucas. Alonso was a physical presence in midfield who never was going to be overrun, not by anyone. Even though Lucas is a talented player, the same can´t be said about him. So to solve these two problems what should Rafa do? To me it´s clear: Bring in a couple of tall guys to replace some of our small men, and bring in a physical presence to boost our hurting midfield! What do you say people, am I out of line or do I have a point?

Tom, I wish you were here with me.

I admit I love Rafa. Does that mean I am Rafa? Hmmmm:P

Well, that´s net spend you´re talking about. I´m talking about cash spent on the players they have in their squad at present time.