Like how Rafa expected/demanded Alonso miss the birth of a child for a game and never seemed to forgive him for not doing so?
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Right. Again, I love Rafa (fond of Xabi, too), but how’d you see Klopp handling that situation?
There are not too many of these obsessives knocking around anymore - in the PL, maybe Bielsa, Pep and Rafa…?
It’s probably for the best.
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Rafa was rightly pissed off…
who plans their kids being born in footer season? FFS
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In Xabis defence he picked it to happen on a second leg knowing we’d have a two nil cushion from the Anfield leg. Cunning bastard probably knew we would bear Inter in Italy 1 nil too.
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He’d have congratulated Xabi, let him take some time off, and waited for him. In return, it would have earnt him respect and loyalty from the player. That’s what he did with Robbo. It’s the long term approach.
I completely agree with your assessment of Rafa btw. His passion for football is devouring, at a point where it can become counterproductive for himself and the club he’s managing. He expects everyone to put football in front of all other matters of life and that can produce bad mood.
I largely prefer Klopp’s approach. In the longer term, it’s the more sustainable one. That’s why Klopp has been able to unite all the the clubs he has managed, from board to fans over the players and coaching teams, has never been sacked, and stayed for such long periods of time at his clubs.
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Rafa is human too.
Being a footballer is a job. A very good job, well paid job but it’s still a job.
Even if I was paid as well as a footballer if my manager made a comment about me because I wanted to take time off to attend the birth of my child I’d tell him to fuck right off and lose all respect for them.
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Rafa is making sure Everton stay where they belong chasing players like Townsend.
Long may it continue.
Townsend on a free is actually a decent signing I reckon
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I found this by accident, and reading it reminds me how much I think Rafa’s general philosophy wasn’t too dissimilar from Jürgen’s, just a matter of the resources they had/have to carry it out. I found the section on Alonso particularly interesting, about how we were looking for someone more mobile to take his role. I’d imagine we’d then have moved towards more of the 4-3-3 that we’re now playing…
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Not sure Mascherano had the ball playing capabilities to be a lone DM, that type of DM that’s almost exclusively a ball winner needs a CM to at least recycle the ball of not a proper deep lying playmaker like Masch had in (the perfect partner for him) Alonso.
Edit: Also if that’s what he wanted to do he could have in his last season with Mach or Lucas as the 6 with plenty of options for the more advanced 8s. In fact that would have been a real good compromise to try with the resources he had but clearly Rafa mustn’t have wanted to even try it.
Nobody knows what would’ve happened.
The fact is that Rafa almost always stuck with his 4-2-3-1. Of course, not everything is about the formation alone.
I always thought that our Mascherano, Alonso and Gerrard trio in midfield was great individually, a very good mix, but maybe not so great going forward long term.
Xabi was the best in his holding midfield role, but as a double pivot, maybe in some games having him and Masch was a tad too defensive, especially with us lacking more guile and threat from wide areas.
Stevie got big numbers playing as a single #10 or second striker, but it also meant him playing back to goal a lot and the minus was that some of his best qualities were put to side. Of course, he remained a high energy player, not a “waiting #10”, but I still felt sorry for him watching him being almost cut off from the slightly deeper action a lot of the time, be it on or off the ball.
Masch was a proper defensive midfielder, but also someone very able on the ball. Not close to Xabi or Stevie, but certainly someone who wouldn’t disrupt your possession aspect, as we saw later at Barca, he can be part of that with ease. Was maybe a 4-3-3 an option, with maybe Xabi playing the #6 and Masch playing a more defensive/energetic #8 like Gattuso did? Allowing Stevie to play in the current De Bruyne role? I don’t know. But back then, we also never got enough threat from those wide areas.
Kuyt got double figures in all competitions in all but one season with us, but he was also a very specific wide attacker (since he didn’t work out as a “Torres type of signing” before Torres, Kuyt came with the description of a complete striker who can get “20 goals and 20 assists”). Not always consistent with his numbers (in certain competitions, he had seasons with par example only 3 league goals, but then his European goals got him to that double figure and then vice versa in other seasons) or skills. So maybe, in the end, getting Masch as ultimately a better player than Sissoko, Rafa found a solution by moving Kuyt as a working wide attacker who can tuck inside and let Stevie find his relationship with Torres.
We lacked just a little bit of variety (to help us in games against low blocks) and more depth I think, if we take that 08/09 season as the peak of Rafa’s Liverpool and when we were so close to big things. Either someone of Yossi’s (who was good for us, but perhaps not the calibre to attack major trophies consistently) style, but better (or someone who would ordinate deeper, like Modric). Talking about a Silva or Mata type. Or a really dangerous wide player/goalscorer (that position was already slightly starting to change at the time, they were not only wingers anymore), more technical than Kuyt and more consistent with his skills/threats.
It’s hard to compare, the club was nowhere near as healthy as it is now in last years, though of course, Klopp perhaps was/is the biggest factor. Rafa had his mistakes, but very much had tougher circumstances. We were creative back then like we are now, we had to be even more so back then. They have some similarities in their idea, but they’re also pretty different. So we have to look at that period in the context of time.
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Great summary Zoran and I completely agree that what we lacked was quality out wide. Swap a Babel or Pennant for a pacey counter attacker like Ronaldo, Robben or even a very young LB Bale and that Rafa side would most probably have won a couple of league titles.
Good win to start at Everton for Rafa. Their natural habitat is 8th. Ancelotti slipped back from that a little, in a weird, cordless season.
Rafa will have them in with an outside chance of CL, but the strength of the top four means they won’t get there, but I’ve a lot of respect for him.
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Everton won’t be anywhere near 4th
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why do i love an Everton Manager?
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What a lovely fella. I learned stuff about him in that interview that I never knew. 
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Rafa and Montse, what a fantastic partnership. 
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