In this season, my beloved Reds are doing a great job in achieving the records that have not been reached before:
- Worst streak in the past, I don't know, 50 years or so in the league
- Failing to advance to 2nd round of CL since 2000 or something
- Failing to advance in Carling cup (expected)
and many more but I refuse to mention them as I don't stand seeing their low. Like I have maintained before to my friends, here are the main reasons in my opinion:
1. Very poor performance when it comes to new signings in the past 2 seasons. We didn't manage to get the players that we were aiming for and we basically have kept the same squad. That is possibly due to financial burden from the current debts and owners' failure to live up to their promises which in turn, has forced us to sell some players as well.
2. Relying on the current squad given the busy gaming schedule has left us with a long injury list and that has done a substantial damage. We rely heavily on 2 key players i.e. El nino and Stevie G. and their absences from time to time has cost us dearly.
3. Last but not least, I personally think that the current low can be largely related to the after shocks of last year where we lost the league title in the very last round while leading the table for the most part of the season.
Maybe Rafa has lost his 'Mojo' or something, I don't know, it is still early to think about sacking him which is not a very good option given his recent contact renewal and that move, I believe, is fundamentally naive. Either way, he's got to do something because it seems like we are heading for the gutter and I don't like the smell of that a tiny bit! The good thing has been, however, that we just won the Merseyside derby last weekend (always feels great) and we thrashed Man U at home (even sweeter than the derby for me!), let's just hope for an improving trend from now on...as Rafa himself has indicated.
- Worst streak in the past, I don't know, 50 years or so in the league
- Failing to advance to 2nd round of CL since 2000 or something
- Failing to advance in Carling cup (expected)
and many more but I refuse to mention them as I don't stand seeing their low. Like I have maintained before to my friends, here are the main reasons in my opinion:
1. Very poor performance when it comes to new signings in the past 2 seasons. We didn't manage to get the players that we were aiming for and we basically have kept the same squad. That is possibly due to financial burden from the current debts and owners' failure to live up to their promises which in turn, has forced us to sell some players as well.
2. Relying on the current squad given the busy gaming schedule has left us with a long injury list and that has done a substantial damage. We rely heavily on 2 key players i.e. El nino and Stevie G. and their absences from time to time has cost us dearly.
3. Last but not least, I personally think that the current low can be largely related to the after shocks of last year where we lost the league title in the very last round while leading the table for the most part of the season.
Maybe Rafa has lost his 'Mojo' or something, I don't know, it is still early to think about sacking him which is not a very good option given his recent contact renewal and that move, I believe, is fundamentally naive. Either way, he's got to do something because it seems like we are heading for the gutter and I don't like the smell of that a tiny bit! The good thing has been, however, that we just won the Merseyside derby last weekend (always feels great) and we thrashed Man U at home (even sweeter than the derby for me!), let's just hope for an improving trend from now on...as Rafa himself has indicated.
2 comments:
I believe the major problem is simply money. This will more or less continue until we get our new stadium. I am in the same boat with you and many others that we’ve been doing lousy job in the transfer market. I also agree that we count on el niño and Stevie G too much, thereby we can’t perform as we should. Injury comes but we have to be prepared and have working plans B and C (although it seems that we are too unlucky in this sense). The manifestation of the financial problem is mostly in mid-field where we dearly miss Alonso. His replacement is not fit and on top of that we have put too much pressure on him which is not good. Potentially we do have quality in our mid-field but for some reason it is not shining all the time. For example in Man U game, Mascerano and Lucas did great and basically controlled the mid-field throughout the game. And man what a joy is when you have this much control and provide an opportunity for even 80-percent-ready niño, that's enough to break down Man U. You see that it doesn’t happen in all occasions. Rafa has to work on mentality of the players. I really like his stubbornness up to a certain point however it’s too much sometimes. For example I believe that Babel is very talented, but he is not given enough time to show his capabilities. He is in for 10 to 20 minutes at the end. I can see him being like Anelka for example. In the defense also we are missing something, which I believe is not squad but I don’t know what exactly it is. Perhaps it is disharmony, lack of commitment, …. Having all said that, I am disappointed with the recent trend but I am proud that we play football with passion, we don’t play business football. Compare our squad with Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U, yes we are different. We learn not to give up …YNWA
Thanks a lot for sharing your insight buddy, I just can't agree more!
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