21 Mar 2026 17:31:36
Pointless sacking him now, the team is rotten and will take more than the half a dozen games to get us playing no matter who’s in charge.
The season reminds me of 2005 poor league form but turned it on in the Champions League... Here’s hoping anyway.
21 Mar 2026 17:49:12
We didn't have the highest wage bill in the league with one of the top squads in the world in 2005, Clee. We had no business winning the 2005 Champions League, but we did because Rafa was a brilliant tactician. On paper, we should be competing for the Premier League and Champions League this season, and the manager is the prime reason we won't.
21 Mar 2026 18:27:45
The 2005 final was not really down to Rafa's tactical acumen. He failed to play Hamann, but fate intervened when Kewell got injured.
Rafa's tactics didn't inspire Gerrard to go on a one man mission; it was inherent within him.
Rafa's tactics didn't inspire Baros to jump out of the way of Smicer's shot.
And Rafa's tactics didn't inspire Dudek to make 'that' save for Schevchenko.
Carra was influential in the shoot-out, and Milan touching the trophy at half time was tempting fate.
There were a lot of powers at play that night, but Rafa's tactics were not one of them.
21 Mar 2026 18:53:01
That's simply nonsense, StEtienne. You clearly have an agenda. And I'm not just simply talking about one game, but consistently across the tournament. I'm not denying luck or individual moments of brilliance were involved, but the way Rafa tactically set us up against superior opposition, and the adjustments he made in the course of games, are the primary reasons we won that year.
Whatever people think of him now, and regardless of his other faults, Rafa was a sensational tactician back in the noughties.
21 Mar 2026 22:56:38
BR don't talk rubbish. Or are you going to gloss over the goal that never was at Chelsea? And Gudjohnson's horror show miss?
Or Luis Garcia and Hyypia's worldies versus Juve combined with Scott Carson's one decent performance of his career?
Or Gerrard's stunner against Olympiakos?
We rode our luck massively, and seized our opportunities, but it was not because of Rafa's tactical genius.
Rafa's tactical genius lost us the league when we should have sealed the deal. The man was a very good tactician, but not a genius.
He was not the same after Pako Ayesteran left, and he was a terrible man manager.