BazC is spot on with his observation on Babel.
My opinion of Babel, he is the type of player that will develop better under the guidance of different coach with different philosophy than Rafa. Rafa's ideas are simple - he needs all his players to perform defensive duties as well as attacking responsibilities equally well. He is a perfectionist and he wants his players to follow his instructions word by word. This is of course influenced by Arrigo Sacchi's methods. Sacchi once said: "Football has a script. The actors, if they’re great actors, can interpret the script and lines according to their creativity, but they still have to follow the script."
This other manager that I can think of is Arsene Wenger. If anybody here knows what is Arsene's coaching methods? I'm very curious to know how he is able mould rough diamonds like Henry and Pires into a gem of a player? Sometime back, I remember Henry was saying that he has to track back more often in Barca than in Arsenal. In Arsenal, he just need to wait on the wings, and be able to attack on the counter. His statement shows that Arsene methods and idealogies are different from Rafa. I have no doubt that if Babel is in Arsenal team now, he would already be one of their main creative players.
I guess Rafa knows best if Babel can play on a consistent basis because he works with him every day in training. I believe Babel has not done enough to be selected as a first 11. Rafa is a very fair coach. He will give opportunities to those who deserved (Insua comes to mind immediately).
I fear for Babel's future at LFC, because I'm afraid that he cannot meet the qualities that is required by Rafa. I do hope Babel can prove me wrong as I want him to be successful at LFC. This boy has bags of potential.
Yup, it's very important to consider not only a player's talents but the manager as well. I think there's a reason why Rafa's found it relatively easy moulding young midfielders and defenders into top players (Agger, Masch, Alonso, Gerrard, Lucas, Sissoko, Skrtel... etc) compared to his attacking players- of which only Torres really is the one who truly looks like a world class player. Others like Crouch and Bellamy were decent (and we profited on their sale) but they weren't good enough for Liverpool.
Perhaps that's telling about Rafa. I think he needs to find the absolute right players for his ideas and that will be massively difficult. Or, he needs the money to buy players he can trust to give them more independence (Torres is an example here). It'll be hard for the first to happen- perhaps it's even an element of luck involved. With the money- I have no doubt that if Rafa could hypothetically buy any player- and he bought the likes of Messi, Kaka or Ronaldo, he'd give them the freer roles in attack- because it's less of a risk that when they play more direct and start moving around a lot, they're likely going to score goals or set them up. Not so with your Babels, Pennants, Gonzalez', etc. These players need to work hard to show Rafa they're able to be trusted in playing a freer role, but maybe they're not/haven't been good enough to do that when they're playing in a more defensively minded role.
I brought up the idea of 'cycles' in teams (in the Level 3 thread) and I think that's very important- other managers will take a season or 2 in the wilderness to play younger players (like your Babels etc) and give them the opportunities and trust to play a freer game. When they're developed, have confidence and have the awareness of the team, they challenge for the title, win maybe, then fall away as another team is being built. My theory is that Rafa wants to break away from this cyclical football, and sustain success- which is why he thinks of 'systems' rather than players. But is this philosophy flexible to allow for the development of the younger players in the first team? I don't think so- it's a bit contradictory- the whole idea of the cycle is to build a team, and allow them to make mistakes, but learn from them. Then when they win and the team is broken up (or in Wenger's case, request transfer!) it starts again. It's why you see top teams winning/challenging for a couple of seasons, then falling away, before coming back again. Barca and Real- Barca were invincible almost, won their league, then the next season they won it, but didn't look so good. Season after, Real won it, looked good. Last season Real won it again, but didn't look so good. Now Barca are back on top. Up and down it'll go!
I believe Rafa's trying to break away from it. I think I made the comparison between Gordon Brown and breaking away from the business cycle. Let's hope Rafa can succeed and reach that Level 4 type place (breaking away from the cycle is perhaps what my idea is of Level 4 at the moment) - unlike Gordon Brown who's facing the mother of all financial crises
Baz - enjoyed that. I do think though that Lucas is better than Gerrard in that central midfield role (I also much prefer Gerrard given a license to roam a bit). He understands what's needed instinctively. You could see what Lucas was trying to do when he first came to Liverpool. He was getting the ball and playing very simple lateral passes. He wasn't trying anything ambitious, just wanting to keep the ball and get the team moving with it a bit - get some fluency into its limbs. But it didn't work and the crowd eventually got on to his case and wrote him off as 'a crab'.
The problem was miscommunication. As a Brazilian he had different priorities, different habits to our lot. Two different football languages if you like - a problem compounded by the lengthy absense of Alonso who, of all are players, has the skills to understand Lucas. What was especially encouraging about the Newcastle match was that it was the first time that Lucas had really thrived without Alonso also in the team.
I think Lucas would be better in that role as well- but perhaps as much to do with Gerrard being so deadly when he's given the freer role. When in CM, the player needs to be disciplined and calculate exactly when he needs to attack and defend- I hate to see Gerrard shackled with those tactical considerations and just love watching him play his football in the free role.
Thing with Lucas is, I'd love for him to be in that free role too. I think he could be as big as Gerrard there. There's 2 ways it could go though. Rafa can play on his dynamic nature and turn him towards Gerrard MkII- drive forward, score goals, get assists.
Be supported by players rather than support as one of the focal attackers. Or, he could play on his disciplined mindset a bit more, turn him into a Fabregas type- a player who can keep possession so well in attack- get those assists and turn the screw by conducting the direction of possession from an attacking position.
The onus would be for him to support the focal attacker rather than be supported.There was an instance in the Newcastle match. Carra had the ball, Lucas drives through the middle- bags of space, Carra doesn't pick him out... and the ball goes dead. Gerrard, who covered Lucas, gave him a bit of a go when they were swapping positions again- that 'shackle' of tactical nous and understanding the timings of when to attack and when to stay back were evident on Lucas. I'd like to see what he does when he's less shackled- I think he'd turn into a truly great CM- perhaps the next collussus in midfield after Gerrard.