Master Tactician - Rafa Benitez

[ZLF 271]

Worthy were you watching last night?

Rafa got it wrong last night by playing 4-5-1.  Despite having a 5 man midfield his team were over run by just 4 Italian midfielders.  However rather than just change personnel he made a bold decision to change formation too, going to 3-5-2 and sit much further up the pitch.

This meant that there were now 7 players facing the Milan back 8 and meant Milan had less time on the ball;  being further up the pitch meant ''pool they did not rely on the long ball so much,passes started to find Liverpool players, meaning they retained possession for longer (in the first half the delivery to Baros was of Norwich standard and it was no surprise he looked poor, he had no support and so possession was too easily lost) and that the possession was held further up the pitch, two strikers meant that the Milan defence had to defend rather than attack .   (Typically though once they equalised they then sat much deeper, went 4-5-1 again and allowed Milan back into the game, when the game was liverpools to win - WHY?)

Would we have ever seen Worthy make such a decision? It is one of the major areas of improvement that he needs to make; recognition of issues and how to solve them in match time.  Watch and learn Worthy...

 

OTBC    

[westoncanary. 0]

He should have played Haman from the start though. How he expected Gerrard to cope with Seedorf, Kaka etc on his own AND get forward was beyond me. He got it wrong from the start, but I agree the change worked.

[Brum Uni Canary 0]

I don''t think you can say Milan had 4 midfielders, when in reality it was 5 or 6! Despite being the oldest outfield players on the field, Maldini and Cafu are the most active. The way they play gives the midfield ever greater width and penetration - how many times did we see one of those 2 players running beyond the midfield to pick up a ball in the last third and swing it in for the players coming through the middle?

[Temp the Revelator 0]

Well, the best team definitely did not become European Champions last night, IMO.  Hats off to Liverpool for the way they came back from 3-0 down, and for hanging on in there to win the shoot-out, but only one team REALLY deserved to win it.

Plus, to take issue with ZLF''s point a bit, Benitez was kind of forced into that change with the injury to Finnan, so I''m not really sure that makes him a master tactician?

[Yoda 0]

Benitez came on after the game last night and said that at 1/2 time they ''talked about it''.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like he at least discussed the matter with the players.

I don''t know what goes on in Worthy''s dressing room at 1/2 time, but at times last season he was tactically naive.  Wonder if he seeks the thoughts of his players before making decisions.

By the way, best Champions League final by a long way.  Well done Liverpool, hope UEFA let you defend the trophy.

Every team needs a Hamman/Makelele type of player.  Not only do they protect defences, they allow creativity from the wide defenders.  Milan''s best foragers in the 1st half were Cafu and Maldini.  Why?  Because they had Gattuso sitting and holding.

[NottsCanary 0]

[quote]Benitez came on after the game last night and said that at 1/2 time they ''talked about it''. Reading between the lines, it sounds like he at least discussed the matter with the players. I don''t know ...[/quote]

Gattusso was still there in the second half though... The difference was in the First half Gerrard and Xabi Alonso had defensive duties and they were struggling. In the second Hamann had the defensive duties and freed Gerrard and Alonso to do what they do best, fast flowing attacking football, and boy did it work.

When they got the three goals, hey were so knackered that they sat 5 at the back with Gerrard right back, 4 in midfield with Cisse doing the running up front. They held out for the pot-luck of penalties, and the gamble paid off. Benitez is a tactical genius.

[ZLF 271]

[quote]He should have played Haman from the start though. How he expected Gerrard to cope with Seedorf, Kaka etc on his own AND get forward was beyond me. He got it wrong from the start, but I agree the chan...[/quote]

Benitez'' holding players were Gerrard and Alonso as alwayz, thats where Gerrard wanted to play and where Alonso has played all season.  It has to be right to start the game as you have played all year and got to the final playing that way.   However Milan clearly decided they could exploit the midfield with two of their defence and their midfield and boy didnt they.

What Benitez did was recognise that it was not working; what we will never know is what would have happened had they gone in a half time just one nil down rather than 3 and how much that influenced his decision.  At 1-0 they were still being slaughtered...

 

OTBC

[ZLF 271]

[quote]Well, the best team definitely did not become European Champions last night, IMO. Hats off to Liverpool for the way they came back from 3-0 down, and for hanging on in there to win the shoot-out, but...[/quote]

I agree that the best team did not win - Liverpool had a good 20 mins out of 120 when the pushed Milan back, played a high tempo game up the pitch and exposed Milan in a way that PSV did.  What Liverpool did not do was kill the game off when they had the upper hand, and allowed Milan back in by backing off and going back to defending in their own half rather than in their opponents. 

As far as Finnan injury causing the change that may be part of it but Worthy would probably have dropped Riise to left back and reshaped the midfield after introducing Hamman - that was the ''obvious'' thing to do - Benitez did not take that choice put did a full reshuffle.  Releasing Gerrard to go forward was against that players own desire; who prefers a deeper role to burst forward when he wants rather than playing a more advanced role.   Going 3-6-1, or as benitez called it 3-2-4-1 is an extreme way to win a midfield battle but showed how important controlling that part of the pitch is. 

I do agree that master tactician is a bit strong but that set of liverpool players would not have made the final or win it without his decisions.

If I was Benetiz I would quit now - he cant acheive any better in the coming years with Liverpool.

On a side issue ''pool should be allowed to defend their title but not at the expense of Everton, or as proposed this morning by making Arsenal qualify.  Liverpool should be given a qualification route by UEFA at no one elses expense.

OTBC 

[olster 0]

I am sorry but i think liverpool done well  

 

 

but how can it be called the champions league ?  when it is full of teams who were not champions and stuff ?  although i would not be saying this if Norwich finished 4th in the premier league i know !!

 

 

[westoncanary. 0]

The irony is that Liverpool may not be able to compete next season when they ARE the Champions.

[olster 0]

I did hear something on radio about they premier league may put liverpool in instead of everton


as it has been done before in spain when madrid won the champions league but failed to finish high enough in the league

[Thirsty Lizard 3,154]

Fairly recently I heard UEFA say that they had a duty to make sure that football clubs were run properly and that therefore they were considering not letting teams play in their competitions who were heavily in debt.

The answer therefore is obvious! Liverpool and Everton are allowed in next years Champs League but Man Utd are thrown out. After all they have debts of somewhere around £300 million! Such gross financial mismanagement as they have displayed should not be rewarded with a Champions League place!

[3pmkickoff 0]

Does Worthy have multi million pund buys on the bench - No

Did Rafa - Yes

Another case closed

[Campbell 0]

The big difference was playing a back three with Hyypia playing slightly deeper than Carragher and Traore combined Hamann playing slightly deeper in midfield than Gerrard and Alonso.

Anybody in football knows that if you play in straight lines (As we do at Norwich) against top sides, you will get cut to pieces.

With a flat four or five, one simple 15 yard pass can cut out all the players in that line. We''ve seen it time and time again this season here at Norwich...The amount of times an opposition player has received a pass infronnt our defence and behind the midfield last season was not acceptable. No wonder we conceded so many goals. That''s why the diamond kept things relatively tight, we had somebody infront of the back four to ensure such passes couldn''t happen.

I seemed to have turned this in to a ''Why we don''t defend well'' type reply, but there are lessons to be learned from the game last night.

Anyway, it doesn''t matter how set up to defend, until our midfield players start tracking runners that go past them, we''ll never defend well enough.

Many congratulations to Liverpool for a spectacular comback and being worthy European Champions!

[Mook 0]

As per, I agree with ZLF. The back three last night was a masterstroke, and no, he didn''t have to do it. It was brave and gutsy, well done Rafa and Liverpool.

And as for all this "letting Gerrard get forward" stuff, how come he played about 40 minutes at right back?

BTW - Liverpool do not deserve to be in the "Champions" League. They won the European cup. They are Champions of that competition BUT they are not in the Championship places in their own league, which is what the competition was made for. If Everton have to give up what they have earned - which they won''t - I would be gutted.

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

Benitez got it spot on but IMO Gerrard was the type of captain we could do with at Norwich. He really wants to win everything and was all over the pitch a leader.

[Yoda 0]

[quote]Benitez got it spot on but IMO Gerrard was the type of captain we could do with at Norwich. He really wants to win everything and was all over the pitch a leader.[/quote]

The squad values on another topic range from £20m to £25m.  Perhaps we should sell our whole squad and buy Gerrard.  He played in virtually every position on Wednesday.

The team would be as follows:

GK: Gerrard

DF: Gerrard

DF: Gerrard

DF: Gerrard

DF: Gerrard

MF: Gerrard

MF: Gerrard

MF: Gerrard

MF: Gerrard

CF: Gerrard

CF: Gerrard

By culling the squad like this, we would also be able to afford his wages.

[First Wizard 0]

[quote]Worthy were you watching last night? Rafa got it wrong last night by playing 4-5-1. Despite having a 5 man midfield his team were over run by just 4 Italian midfielders. However rather than just ch...[/quote]

Why are we discussing the attributes of Liverpool, and their manager on a Norwich website!.

If Worthy had the same financial clout as them, then messed it up, we could then compere the two.

You can''t even call them overpaid Scouser''s now, as most of them are foreign!.

Let''s all get back to matters Green and Yellow, that''s far more important.

[Morph 19]

[quote]Why are we discussing the attributes of Liverpool, and their manager on a Norwich website!. If Worthy had the same financial clout as them, then messed it up, we could then compere the two. You can''...[/quote]

Sorry Wiz have to disagree with you on this one. ZLF, has it spot on.

City don''t have the resources of Liverpool - agreed.

City don''t have the wealth of talent of Liverpool - agreed.

But I think that ZLF was actually commenting on the coaching/team/game management side of things.

Rafa made a bold step, maybe it was pushed by injuries but I don''t think that''s all it was. He chose to change things around at half time to combat the midfield dominance that Milan had from their first half showing. He brought on Hamann in place of Finnan, sacrificing the existing back four to stifle Milan''s midfield.

Can you see Worthy making a similar move, changing from a 4-4-2 to a 3-6-1 in order to counter the dominance of the opposition? Sadly I don''t, much as I would love for him to prove otherwise.

Could it be done with the existing City squad? Possible but difficult. Push Helveg and Drury up as wingbacks and bring in Charlton alongside Fleming and Shackell to form a back three. Play with Ashton as a lone striker and have Huckerby working in behind him. So yeah it could be done, probably with not the same effect as Liverpool but yes.

The crux for me is that Worthy never seems to look at these possibilities in any of the games in which he has an opportunity to do so - pre-season friendlies, cup matches and so on.

...