What has Rafa done ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ this week?

Right

– Rafa’s comments on Alberto Aquilani seemed to be right on the mark as to where the Italian midfielder is at. I’m glad to hear that he saw promising signs in the Portsmouth match a couple of weeks ago, and I hope he begins to include him in successive matches in the coming weeks. Rafa said on the Italian:

“It was a shame he was sick (for the match against Lille) because he had been good for the performance (against Portsmouth). You can see he wants to improve and it is important for us to have another player pushing. We need players with quality to help us improve until the end of the season. Alberto has got desire and he is working very hard. When we have him available, he can give us a different approach on the pitch in different games. Physically you could see he coped with a lot of running last time and it was much better. It is a question of time. It is disappointing that he was ill and missed out against Lille but we are hopeful he will continue to improve and play more games before the end of the season.”

Rather than sticking with the two defensive midfielders in upcoming matches, I hope Rafa begins to open out our play in search for goals and wins. Seven wins from seven in the league will be a difficult task, but it is something everyone knows is needed if we want to finish in the top four. With Aquilani in the team we have a greater chance of doing this.

– Rafa’s call on the senior players to stand up for the final matches of the season was a good ploy. The likes of Gerrard and Torres will have to be at their best in the run-in and the frustrations of the season must be forgotten if the team is going to play as one. Gerrard’s frustration in recent weeks has been clear for everyone to see and Torres’s anger was apparent during the United match when he kicked the turf on the penalty spot in front of Wayen Rooney. Rafa needs this sort of negative energy to be channelled into something good; exceptional individual performances from them both are what’s needed to help clinch fourth spot for Liverpool.

Wrong

-The tactics against Manchester United last week were way too negative. The problem with Rafa sometimes is that he is more concerned with the opposition than his own team and plays a starting eleven, along with tactics, that are suited to preventing the opposition playing. Of course, when you go to Old Trafford, you can’t be careless in passing and play open as you will get cut apart by the United attack, but you can still show a lot more ambition that we did last Sunday. After Torres scored the opening goal, I don’t think Van der Sar had a worthy shot to save until late on in the match, and although it is sometimes prudent to keep it tight when you go 1-0, if you sit back and show no ambition at all to get forward, you are asking for trouble. You let teams come onto you and that was exactly what United did in the second half. If things are not going well when it is still 1-1, you start making changes, but Benitez persisted with the same team. It was a team that had Kuyt, Lucas, Mascherano and Rodriguez in midfield, a selection designed for containment and it was one of the critical reasons why Torres and Gerrard had a lack of service when they could have capitalised on their advantage and picked United off. You can’t show ambition if you haven’t got the right players on the field to do it. It was a team picked to draw the match rather than win it, but the plan failed.

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