Date: 3rd March 2009 at 11:19am
Written by:

Rafa, has spoken out in the press today stating that the injuries to Torres this season has derailed our attempt in keeping up with ManU for this years EPL. Now I like Rafa and would like to see him stay on as i do think he has an overall plan for the team and with some more financial backing could win us the title. The problem I do have is i don’t believe this excuse covers up the fact that a lot of the problems this year in our attempt for the EPL was off the pitch and not on it.

High on the agenda was the poor if not missing support for Torres. We thought this had been resolved when we signed Robbie Keane but Rafa did not want him to start off with so used Robbie’s poor start with the club as an excuse to flex his managerial muscles and not play him. His issues with signing a new contract was the problem of transfer control on who came and left Anfield and his sacrifice of Keane was his way of proving this point. This was plain to see in December when Robbie scored against the Gunners at The Emirates and then two more against Bolton the following match. Just when we thought he had found his feet he was dropped to the bench game after game. 0-0 away to Stoke the next month and we had Lucas and Robbie left on the bench and for some un-holy decision the worst Brazilian midfielder ever got the nod in front of him when we needed a vital goal.

So what did that mean for the club? Well we all know that it left us short of front and lacking in firepower or quality up front. Once Torres was injured it was left up to Gerrard and Kuyt to rescue the team by pitching in goals. Rafa’s statement proves to us that he knows we NEVER had strength in depth even though several weeks ago on the Torres injury subject he said we had. I’m sorry Rafa but if you think you can replace Torres with Babel, Ngog or El Zhar you are dreaming as they are not fit to lace his boots.

We were never able to maintain a winning consistency during the second half of the season due to this lack of quality once we get past twelve or thirteen players. Lucas, Ngog, Babel, Degan, Dossena, Insua, Plessis, Itanje these are the types of players we have at our disposal to bring on as sub to try and change a game, to try and turn a draw into a win, sorry but they aint good enough. United can call upon squad members like Giggs, Scholes, Nani, Anderson, Tevez, F.Da Silva, R Da Silva, Hargreaves, sometimes even ROONEY – the list goes on – I will not even go into the Chelsea bench to save further embarrassment. I don’t hear to many ecuses from Chelsea that this year their challenge has suffered due to the injury to Drogba simply because Anelka stepped into that breach. Quality replacing quality – that is what it is all about.

I think instead of blaming an injury to one player for this seasons failings the board, the owners and the manager should hold their hands up and say that they made big mistakes this year, they never kept up their end of the bargain, they never gave 100% when it was needed and that they need to get smarter and fitter for next season.

Tonka Out – YNWA…

 

One response to “So whats the story now Rafa???”

  1. Ron says:

    I totally agree with you there Tonka. The point you raised about us lacking depth in our squad is so true. I actually almost had a fist fight on Saturday after the Middlesbrough game when i went to my local pub to drown my sorrows and a United fan came up to me and said that he does not understand why Liverpool are struggling since they have the BEST SQUAD in the league. I looked at him and said, “Chap, do you even know your football!!” He was a United fan and kept on insisting that Liverpool has a stronger squad that United. He pissed me off!! I hate talking football to dumb people… I have decided to not bother wasting my energy!