Did anyone see Rafa's Inter at Spurs? Did not that remind you of the first game of last season when we failed to get the win we deserved at Spurs? Again he over complicated things & was left chasing the game. Don't get me wrong i like the man but he is just to much of a control freak. When he wins its down to his brilliance & when things go wrong its someone else who has made a balls up acording to him. He should just give his players more freedom to express themselves & own up when he is wrong. Too arrogant
Yet you're a fan of Hodgson? The man who other than the first half on Sunday hasn't allowed the players to express themselves at all, unless chasing the game; hasn't once taken any sort of responsiblity for any bad performance, or anything in general; and is far more arrogant than Benitez ever was.
He might have been a bit arrogant but as far as tactics are concerned he certainly was much better than Woy and more importantly he did not have a mid-table mentality.
Ignore him mate, he's some dickhead wind-up merchant. Wouldn't mind betting he's a returning banned member.
Few successful managers are not arrogant. Look at all the managers that qualified for Europe last season in the Prem: Ancelotti is arrogant, Ferguson is arrogant, Wenger is arrogant, Redknapp is arrogant, Mancini is arrogant, O'Neill is arrogant and Benitez is arrogant. I have little doubt that Hodgson is arrogant too, but I have hopes that he will take us higher in the table than Benitez. The team is pulling together and, given the points Spurs have dropped, we should over-take them if we continue our 4 game winning streak against Wigan, Stoke and West Ham. But yes, I agree he should give the attacking players more freedom.
How come most of those that were so critical of the previous manager, blatantly missing from this forum this season?
Was thinking that the other day. Good old acne man hasn't posted all season, and several other "Rafa out now, but I can't name any better alternatives who should replace him" types that were prevalent throughout this forum last season.
Least unlike Woy Rafa had ambition even went things went wrong he didn't lower expectations at liverpool, even if it made him look a bit like an idiot by guaranteeing 4th place with almost the same squad Woy has got now. What's his ambition? that liverpool fans shouldn't expect to much. He's turned anfield from a fortress into target practice. Letting him get control of transfer funds would be one big mistake.
Other than the tactical issues and the media gaffes (he's made a further one just recently as well, and there have been near innumerable ones post his first couple of press conferences) one of the things I'm most concerned about is him alienating some of our better footballing players. We've already heard that Johnson is unhappy, Agger, Reina and Torres too. Pacheco, one of our most exciting young talents, has been completely sidelined after a timekeeping incident. We've not seen some players really even get a look in despite others in their position being less than impressive (Wilson, Jovanovic, Aurelio for a start). But those four are key to us wanting to play any sort of reasonable attacking football (yes, even a keeper), and in Reina we have a player we simply cannot afford to make unhappy and risk losing. The style that Benitez had us trying to play when we were at our best was not one of the major criticisms of Rafa, they were that he'd lost the dressing room, he didn't use his squad well enough (either too much rotation or sticking with his favourites), his substitutions were poor, he was far too negative on the road and would rather look not to lose than to win and that he wouldn't employ enough creativity in the side (poor in the transfer market too perhaps). Well, on every single aspect there Roy has been worse. Every single one. And I keep hearing that we should give him time for his methods to bed in? Well, what if his methods just aren't right? I'm sorry, but when you take over a club in massive debt, are unable to bring in more players to suit your style because of constraints brought on by that, wouldn't it then seem best to adapt, and implement football that suits the player's you have at your disposal? Not to simply insist your methods are correct, have worked for 30 years at different teams in generally poorer leagues and make the players play how you want them to? Anyone can tell that making Steven Gerrard attempt to play like Tom Huddlestone, Torres like an archetypal English no 9, Glen Johnson sit 18 yards out and defend all game, Dan Agger become a stopper and not be allowed to bring the ball out of defence, Pepe Reina to adapt his goalkeeping style and look to play long and hoof clearances, and having Raul Meireles play as a winger is not going to work. Infact the only player who suits the current system is Jamie Carragher, who is past his best and should be reduced to a backup role now, but instead was given a contract extension at 90k a week! We have a thin squad, and some utter shite in it, but we still have some excellent players and exciting young talents, and playing to their strengths, as in the first 45 mins against Chelsea and 70 against Blackburn, surely makes more sense?! It's obvious that his way is not working, and it's clear that the players aren't getting moulded into it.
I've just seen this. You what? . You were one of the worst at the Lane last season. Are you secretly Hodgson in disguise? It was a mirror image of the games you've supposedly deserved more from this season.
