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Andrew
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Exactly. The commentator hit the nail on the head yesterday when he mentioned Blackburn watching a video of the Wolves home game before their win at SJP,  with the lack of versatility in the system teams we are up against know exactly how we will play and set up for it. We've lost 6 games this season to average opposition, all because they know how we will play, weeks before the game. If we go a goal down we don't look like ever pulling it back as he seems to lack the ability to spot the weakness and deal with it, if you don't find it a problem then you need to lay off the crackpipe.

 

That system should be enough to beat most sides, certainly in this league, but failing to make timely changes is either being timid or stubborn. 

 

Blackburn set out their stall to defend almost as the away side would, so when the hour mark rolled by, I was expecting changes to be made to the side to further stretch the game. Hayden, and Colback can't stretch the game with their passing range, but Yedlin, and Atsu can do so with their pace. Instead we saw Perez brought on for Colback and while AP has technique and decent movement, he's not going to sufficiently disrupt their back 8. 

 

Rafa deserves tremendous credit for all he's got right, but he got this one wrong and isn't above criticism.

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If I was manager of a team whose attempts had outnumbered the oppositions by 20 to 1 I wouldn't feel the urgency to make changes either.

 

He made a change as soon as we conceded totally against the run of play due to player error and we had fewer attempts after that than we had before.

 

Even fresh legged, Perez, Atsu and Murphy had less to offer than we had prior

 

Their keeper made 5 saves (all prior to any changes).  Our keeper made none all day.

 

One of those days.   Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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If I was manager of a team whose attempts had outnumbered the oppositions by 20 to 1 I wouldn't feel the urgency to make changes either.

 

He made a change as soon as we conceded totally against the run of play due to player error and we had fewer attempts after that than we had before.

 

Even fresh legged, Perez, Atsu and Murphy had less to offer than we had prior

 

Their keeper made 5 saves (all prior to any changes).  Our keeper made none all day.

 

One of those days.   Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

If I was a manager of a team whose attempts had outnumbered the oppositions by 20 to 1, I would think "Why aren't we getting the break through" and would tweak something to further unsettle the opponents without altering the system that is working quite well. Bringing on a more direct, pacy winger instead of Gouffran doesn't alter the system.

 

It's incredibly harsh to criticise Murphy or Atsu given how little time they actually had on the pitch.

 

I don't think anyone is saying tear up the plan because it didn't work last night, I'm certainly not. I'm saying that Rafa cannot be above criticism and last night his hesitancy (I believe) cost us. For what it's worth I think we should have started with Atsu and Yedlin to really get at their less than rapid back line.

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I think its clear Perez, Colback and Anita need shipping out.

I think Perez isn't suited for this league, but he performed well in a poor Premier League side and I think there's a player in him. 

 

Colback can do one.

 

Anita has been one of the consistent players in this league, hasn't let the club down at all and has got on with his job. He certainly shouldn't be 1st choice if and when we're promoted, but for the amount we'd get for him there aren't many utility players of his standard. He's another Aaron Hughes imo.

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If I was a manager of a team whose attempts had outnumbered the oppositions by 20 to 1, I would think "Why aren't we getting the break through" and would tweak something to further unsettle the opponents without altering the system that is working quite well. Bringing on a more direct, pacy winger instead of Gouffran doesn't alter the system.

 

It's incredibly harsh to criticise Murphy or Atsu given how little time they actually had on the pitch.

 

I don't think anyone is saying tear up the plan because it didn't work last night, I'm certainly not. I'm saying that Rafa cannot be above criticism and last night his hesitancy (I believe) cost us. For what it's worth I think we should have started with Atsu and Yedlin to really get at their less than rapid back line.

 

Fair enough.  Been reading that we have to change to 442 though.  That Mitro has to play with Gayle etc.

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Fair enough.  Been reading that we have to change to 442 though.  That Mitro has to play with Gayle etc.

 

There's a few things going on there; Mike Bassett-itis, Mitrovic's popularity, kneejerk overreaction to a disappointing loss.

 

The majority of people would agree that Rafa's got it right for the majority of the season. Calls for wholesale changes in tactics or personnel are surely just born out of frustration at a bad day in Blackburn?

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There's a few things going on there; Mike Bassett-itis, Mitrovic's popularity, kneejerk overreaction to a disappointing loss.

 

The majority of people would agree that Rafa's got it right for the majority of the season. Calls for wholesale changes in tactics or personnel are surely just born out of frustration at a bad day in Blackburn?

442 isn't a wholesale change when you've spent all season playing 4411. We've got a £15mil striker on the bench who offers a completely different playing style to Perez/Gayle and has shown he can score goals in this league and the premier league. It's not a heinous suggestion to pair him with Gayle for a couple of games and see what happens. It would have let Diame drop back too. Rafa played about 15 different starting XIs on the bounce btw

 

This whole 'how dare you criticise Rafa, look at the stats' stuff is getting boring. We may have had 25 shots but 80% (literally) hit a defender or ended up in row Z

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442 isn't a wholesale change when you've spent all season playing 4411. We've got a £15mil striker on the bench who offers a completely different playing style to Perez/Gayle and has shown he can score goals in this league and the premier league. It's not a heinous suggestion to pair him with Gayle for a couple of games and see what happens. It would have let Diame drop back too. Rafa played about 15 different starting XIs on the bounce btw

 

This whole 'how dare you criticise Rafa, look at the stats' stuff is getting boring. We may have had 25 shots but 80% (literally) hit a defender or ended up in row Z

 

Who said that like?

 

fwiw I said before the game kicked off I wanted a variation on the regular system. While 4-4-2 may not be Rafa's way, there are variations on his 4-2-3-1 that can be played with Mitrovic and Gayle, though I doubt we'll ever see them.

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Fuck me, what has our support come to. We've won more than anyone else, we're at the top of the league, we've played many teams completely off the park this season and have scored more than anyone in the division and have an amazing goal difference. We've got a manager who has managed to change the face of the whole club in about half a year, with only one transfer window to work in (which itself was compromised because he hadn't got his own future sorted out til late on) and people are still going into meltdown and criticising him. We've been a fucking shambles for fucking years - things are going brilliantly at the moment, despite having lost a handful of games. We should be enjoying this and getting behind a team and manager who are putting absolutely everything into getting promoted. Honestly I've got no time for anyone having a go at Benitez, or the players for that matter, after how well they've done this season so far. 

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Fuck me, what has our support come to. We've won more than anyone else, we're at the top of the league, we've played many teams completely off the park this season and have scored more than anyone in the division and have an amazing goal difference. We've got a manager who has managed to change the face of the whole club in about half a year, with only one transfer window to work in (which itself was compromised because he hadn't got his own future sorted out til late on) and people are still going into meltdown and criticising him. We've been a fucking shambles for fucking years - things are going brilliantly at the moment, despite having lost a handful of games. We should be enjoying this and getting behind a team and manager who are putting absolutely everything into getting promoted. Honestly I've got no time for anyone having a go at Benitez, or the players for that matter, after how well they've done this season so far. 

 

Nobody is above criticism.

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I think Perez isn't suited for this league, but he performed well in a poor Premier League side and I think there's a player in him. 

 

Colback can do one.

 

Anita has been one of the consistent players in this league, hasn't let the club down at all and has got on with his job. He certainly shouldn't be 1st choice if and when we're promoted, but for the amount we'd get for him there aren't many utility players of his standard. He's another Aaron Hughes imo.

 

To what extent can Anita let you down when he offers so little in the first place? I had hopes for him when he came here. Tidy little passer of the ball with decent movement and good energy. Someone who could sit back and control the pace of the game perhaps. He just cant though. Lacks the ability to do that or indeed be a decent modern full back. Hughes had more about him but I get your point about him half decent cover for 2-3 positions. I think he'll struggle even at that again in the premier league. 

 

Perez is a strange one. Not sure whats happened to him because like you say he did look good at times in a very poor team.

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Absolutely. It just amazes me that people would want to criticise at all at the moment. Things are going really, really well.

It's reasonable to criticise after a defeat, no?

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442 isn't a wholesale change when you've spent all season playing 4411. We've got a £15mil striker on the bench who offers a completely different playing style to Perez/Gayle and has shown he can score goals in this league and the premier league. It's not a heinous suggestion to pair him with Gayle for a couple of games and see what happens. It would have let Diame drop back too. Rafa played about 15 different starting XIs on the bounce btw

This whole 'how dare you criticise Rafa, look at the stats' stuff is getting boring. We may have had 25 shots but 80% (literally) hit a defender or ended up in row Z

Well the last bit is possibly because we're in the second tier with a second tier squad. Let's not forget who's responsible for that; clue: he's not Spanish.

 

No one is saying Rafa is above criticism. What pisses me off is the "WE'RE GONNA PISS THE LEAGUE/WE'RE SHITE, RAFAS A CUNT" nature of the criticism. There was a thread in late October on here when me and DK were virtually the only ones saying we'd achieved fuck all and there was still a long way to go, versus a few that were saying "this leagues shite we're going to piss it" That remains the same, the season has been generally very good but there are issues that need to be addressed.

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I'd happily have Rafa here for the next 10 years, and personally I put yesterday's defeat down more to it being one of those days but what in the world makes people think him or any other great manager cant make a mistake ffs. 

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Rafa shouldn't be above criticism. Some of his selections seem stubborn but you have to stay level headed given where we are in the league. I'd like him to mix it up more and play more attacking players from the start but he knows what he's doing, he sees the players every day. In Rafa we trust.

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Well the last bit is possibly because we're in the second tier with a second tier squad. Let's not forget who's responsible for that; clue: he's not Spanish.

 

No one is saying Rafa is above criticism. What pisses me off is the "WE'RE GONNA PISS THE LEAGUE/WE'RE SHITE, RAFAS A CUNT" nature of the criticism. There was a thread in late October on here when me and DK were virtually the only ones saying we'd achieved fuck all and there was still a long way to go, versus a few that were saying "this leagues shite we're going to piss it" That remains the same, the season has been generally very good but there are issues that need to be addressed.

 

This was supposed to be the time when the 'superior' strength of our squad would become evident increasing the points gap at the top of the table :D

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This was supposed to be the time when the 'superior' strength of our squad would become evident increasing the points gap at the top of the table :D

How many first choice premier league players did we sign? Ritchie?...the squad is decent at this level but ffs let's look at things objectively and not just with a hugely positive slant when we win a few, nor the with the corresponding utterly fuckin ridiculous revisionism when things aren't going well.

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This was supposed to be the time when the 'superior' strength of our squad would become evident increasing the points gap at the top of the table :D

To be honest, had Shelvey been available I think we'd have won every game. 

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To be honest, had Shelvey been available I think we'd have won every game. 

 

Agreed, that's really where our issue is. We should have a plan B though, without him. Still think Route 1 to Mitro would be workable.

 

That said, it's probably worth keeping in mind that we did get the ball in the net twice, albeit not allowably. In the cold light of day I think HF's assertion that this was just 'one of those games' is probably about right. The reason that it's being taken more seriously is because it has happened during a 'slump'.

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