I am 100% behind him still.
I wrote an epic post over Christmas which pretty much summed up my feelings on the situation, so I won’t go through them again. Just to reiterate that there is no one person or entity responsible for the mess that this season has become, and to pin it all on one man seems a bit ridiculous to me.
The owners never allowed the manager to build on the successes of last season with financial backing in the summer. Instead, he ended up replacing the outgoing players with a net spend of about £10,000, or a twelfth of Fernando Torres’ weekly wage. This to reinforce a squad that was not the finished article last season by any means, but was desperately close.
The players themselves need to take their share of the responsibility too, especially the senior ones. Gerrard, Carragher, Mascherano and Kuyt especially have not been good enough this season. Neither have Agger and Skrtel when they’ve played. We need leadership on the pitch, and it isn’t as simple as scoring goals or keeping clean sheets. It’s about lifting young lads like Lucas, Insua and N’gog who are inexperienced, it’s about busting a gut and doing something while you still can rather than talking empty words about “the players have to take the responsibility” or “it’s not been good enough” afterwards in the media. Talk is cheap. The other night, Reading wanted it more than us, simple as that. And how that’s solely down to the manager I have no idea.
I love the way people forget as well that Torres and Gerrard fucked off to play meaningless matches for Spain and England back in October and came back injured. That was the start of the really bad run, and neither of them have been the same since. There are responsibilities all over the place for what has happened this season. At the very least, we should be able to see that this club is Rafa’s first, second, third, fourth and fifth priorities, which is far more than can be said for any of our players. And when the suggestion is made that he just simply isn’t good enough, I’ll say “see the period 2000 – 2009, and tell me he’s not good enough."
The buck usually does stop with the manager, but it doesn’t have to. And he can take his share of the blame, but that’s the key word there – share. Throw in the record amount of injuries, especially the ones to Torres and Gerrard, and it’s clear that there is a number of contributory factors to what has happened this season. Obviously the media will sink their teeth as far as they can into this story, that’s what they do, but people who truly care about the club should at least attempt to be balanced and realistic.
Yeah, for what it’s worth I’m still behind him 100%, but I’m not sure it matters anymore.
