Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Torres Gets Rafa Out Of Jail

Fernando Torres came off the bench to score a dramatic injury time winner against Portsmouth at the weekend. Rafa left him, Alonso, Kuyt and Riera on the bench and started with a "weakened" 11. Eyebrows were raised when Rafa went with a very unconventional starting line-up. 5 at the back and Aurelio in the centre of the park! What was he thinking? Why did he change the formation of the team?

Aurelio was holding his own in midfield and even added some flair to it but we were lacking Alonso's ability and craftmanship to split defences and create something out of nothing and duly did that once he was introduced.

Babbel looks like a broken man on the field. He no longer seems to have the ability to run at defences. His confidence is gone thanks to Rafa's inability to find his best position on the field. Is it as a winger or a striker, no one seems to know let alone Rafa. And what about the selection of Ngog to lead the line. He showed some good touches in pre-season games but nothing of late warrants a start. Rafa would have done better keeping Keane.Thank God Lucas was suspended for the game otherwise Mascherano might have also joined the "dream" team on the bench!

Ok Rafa got the 3 points with resting key players and using them sparingly at the end but I just hope he knows what hes doing in the run in to the championship. With Gerrard out for up to 3 weeks he cannot gamble with his team selection. He need all his "big" players to come to the party and overhaul the points deficit to the mancs and bring home our 19th Championship.

1 comment: