Gallowgate Toon

I've always been a big fan of Rafa, and thought he was a great manager for Liverpool. I put down his career wavering due to some poor choices in terms of clubs. Going to Inter after winning the treble, replacing Mourinho just as Moratti had fulfilled his ambition to win the CL meant he was on a hiding to nothing in a new financial reality. The fact Rafa was the last Inter manager to win a trophy tells you everything. Chelsea, too, as an interim, was not the kind of project or club suited to him. But he ultimately did an excellent job in the end to guide them to 3rd and win a trophy. However, I was disappointed with how he did at Napoli. While he did win the Coppa Italia, Mazzarri had also managed that, and he ultimately took them backwards to finishing 5th. Also, losing the Europa semi-final to Dnipro was a big disappointment. He succeeded in improving the status of the club by attracting big signings, but failed in developing the team on the pitch and developing the players they had brought in. Since replacing him Sarri has had them playing significantly better football. You only have to look at the level of goal output Higuain, Insigne and Mertens have produced and the way they've developed as players to see that. So I'm not sure whether I agree with the hypothesis that managers can pass their sell-buy date. But I do think they can make bad career choices, and become looked at less favourably because of it. Rafa has done that in a pursuit for trophies for his CV. With us he finally has a project more in line with what he had at Valencia and Liverpool, so long as he receives the backing and support he deserves from the board. There should be no short termism to it. He is back in England, close to his family, and in a job where the expectations aren't high and the timeframe is longterm. He needs to prove himself as a manager who can build and shape a team over a number of seasons again. Then, he only needs to deliver one of his usual trophies, and he'll have a statue outside the ground. I can't speak for the style of play but Rafa's Napoli didn't seem to struggle with goals? Despite Higuain having an absolute monster of a season last year, they only scored 3 more than Rafa's first season - that would suggest he built a good team of scorers, would it not, rather than an over-reliance on one player? His second season seemed really weird, they shipped a lot of goals but still nabbed a solid 70.

We do have the best overall first XI, but we've been missing key components for a little while. Our depth in numbers is good, but our quality doesn't match. We essentially have 3 CMs and 1 winger on our books for one of the most physically grueling professional leagues.

We'd solve a lot of problems by really sorting out the spine of the team, tbh.

This is a pretty unfair criticism, IMO. He's basically tried to rebuild a whole squad in a single summer for a club in a not-so-desirable situation. When you have a massive turnover change like that, there's going to be plenty of wastage. That's a hangover from years and years of horrific recruitment - we still lack balance and I imagine it'll take another window or two to fully rectify it.

What formation are we really suited to? It's either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, IMO. Perhaps 4-4-2 with Gayle but we're already very leggy in midfield. There are far bigger factors. The spend point is an annoying one. He pretty much overhauled an entire squad and then some. Naturally, there's a lot of massive risk in that because you're getting a lot of players at once which is an unknown.

Howay man, we can win one game. I wish I had your confidence, but after that display today, it's very difficult to see. Ne offence but you're possibly the most pessimistic person I've ever come across

Needs to be dropped, absolutely. He needs to rebuild confidence, I think he's mentally shredded.

I think it's as simple as Gayle & Shelvey disruptions, tbh. Clarke now missing is also a big blow.

I thought Yedlin was rated at Sunderland when he played under BSA?

His movement is really good, you can tell he grew up at Arsenal. He just opened up the middle of the pitch on numerous occasions and made space for more of our forward players. We need a better version of him next year, but he'll make it as a solid PL player if we develop him the right way.

He's a young centre half still, like. Plenty of time to improve and some good attributes to work with. We need 2 CBs in the Summer, no doubt, but I have faith he'll make it.

Brighton have faltered plenty of times this season, btw. They won't win every remaining game. We'll be champions on GD.

Rotherham in January really. That says it all 2nd half of the,season we don't deserve promotion to be honest we've been behind Brighton and huddersfield from January onwards. Them 2 wins against them mean f*** all now we still need 7 points from 12 to be certain of promotion and the way we have been playing I'm not confident of getting that..Brighton win league by 7 points plus I think f***ing hell.

Rubbish.

Hayden makes a real difference to us, IMO. Even half fit, his energy and actual occasional drive makes us much more dynamic. He needs upgrading on next year (someone in the same style but better) but he'll make a good squad player.

Our shots to shots on target ratio must be awful, like.

It's a shame with Wenger because I think (thought) he's brilliant but even I find him absolutely infuriating now. I can't imagine what it'd be like if you were a fan. For years, it's been abundantly clear that Arsenal needed to improve the core of their spine. A top class CB, CM, and striker. Instead, he's only brought in a top class winger and attacking midfielder - the rest vary from average to just good. I think he's just got lost in his philosophy - obsessed with molding a squad into title-winners rather than going out and buying the necessary quality. I'd like to believe this year is a complete wake-up call for him but I reckon this sort of failure will just entrench him into his mindset even further.

I think all things considered a 433 would be more suitable than a 442 tbh. This. Gayle and a striking partner aside, I don't think we're at all set up for 4-4-2. We don't have the legs in central midfield and our defence (central, in particular) needs lots of protection. We're also struggling in wide areas - giving our wide midfielders more work to do wouldn't really help. It'd work fine if we were exclusively a counter-attacking team, but we're not exactly blessed with pace either. 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 are our best bets, IMO.

They're going to counter us, I don't really fancy Shelvey and Diame to offer much when that happens

The first half of the season was a real snapshot into the future of football under Rafa, IMO - we played a lot of good stuff in that period. The second half of the campaign has been disrupted a fair bit (it shouldn't have been, had we invested even a fairly minimal outlay) and has been a pressure cooker until very recently - I think he went safety first as a result but it's worked!

I was reading Brighton's forum a couple of months back and was surprised at their opinion of him - lots of commentary on his inconsistency. I didn't think he was that great against us in either game.

I like Cairney but he's definitely not the most athletic. For that price, he'd not be coming as a backup and I don't think he'd complement Shelvey, a superior player, well at all. Unless we're going for a 4-3-3 next season...

Huddersfield, like us, have lost to some very ordinary sides, iirc.

I just find some of the criticisms of Rafa really lazy, tbh. And, of course, the annoying way in which they're presented by people who only seem to surface when we've had a wobble doesn't help. As an example, I've just watched the game all the way through yesterday. I saw comments after the game that we just sat off and let them have it. From what I saw, that absolutely wasn't the case - we pressed high on numerous occasions but they kept the ball really, really well. Of course, we struggle when the game gets stretched due to our lack of athleticism and they managed it well from that POV. I wasn't that amazed by them, though - they kept the ball to stop us from having it, that was smart, but they really capitalized with breaks due to our unforced errors. If Rafa had been allowed to bring in another CM, I don't think we'd have seen that. I also thought Wednesday were just as good when they came up here. Personally, I reckon we've lost more games this season due to player incompetence than managerial/tactical mistakes (he has made errors, just like every other manager). I don't believe they're talented enough to always stay true to instructions, and some of our defensive play when midfield protection is gone is pretty laughable. If he were a true defensive manager, we'd have drawn a lot more than we have, we'd have scored a lot less, and we'd average far less shots than we do. And if Rafa was designing us as a truly defensive team, I seriously doubt you'd see the basic errors we saw on Saturday, as we wouldn't even offer that space. If anything, I think we have a problem with leaving too many gaps when on home soil. Edit: Nor did we start slowly on Saturday either, as we rarely do, IMO. We looked more dangerous in the opening 10.

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though We've scored 38 goals in 18 league home games, like, and have some of the highest possession & shots. I'd hardly say we're negative. Inefficient & inconsistent, definitely. Stats can hide a multitude of sins. According to the stats we should have got battered at Huddersfield last week. Over a whole season? Plus, didn't they have less shots on target than us? I'll concede that the football in the second half of the season hasn't been to the standard of some of the stuff we played in the first, but I don't think it's down to negativity.