Rafa and Liverpool is one of the few things that I cannot make my mind up on. Over the past two years I've changed my mind several times. There have been times when I was ready to see him gone, namely last season after the Reading away game, when we lost 3-1, and he took Gerrard and Torres off with 20minutes to go. At the time that game cemented the fact that Rafa was learning nothing, and instead was making the same mistakes with rotations and playing players out of position. However, the end of last season it finally clicked. The long awaited 4231 working. Gerrard in a free central role, with Torres up top and the perfect pairing of Mascherano to break down oppositions play and Alonso to retain and distribute. I was convinced that that was it. Set on formation, and knowing the best positions of our best players.
I was confident at the end last season. The summer destroyed that. Wanting to sell a player that I thought was key to make that formation work and sign one that didn't fit.
Beyond Rafa's control things seemed to work themselves out. Within a few months of the start of the season we were back to playing 4231 with the players we'd used at the end of last season. But it seemed accidental. Rafa had ended up keeping a player that he wanted out, and getting rid of the one he did sign within months of signing him. So I find myself in the same position as last summer. We finished the season playing in exactly the that I wanted to see. But summer dealing could throw that off again. Is this the formation he's now settled on? Or, like last year, was it just to see him through to the summer when he could buy and sell again? I'm never sure with Rafa whether he's learnt the lessons of his trials and errors.
Of course, we've made progress in the league. I don't mind to sound negative about that, like others have said a challenge is all many of us would have asked for at the start of the summer. But I don't feel the same confidence in Rafa that others do, I fear he'll mess too much with the things that worked this season and set us back again. I am reassured by the high points tally and lack of defeats, but unlike some, I don't feel the same joy and reason for celebration. It amounts to nothing, so what's the point? Like I say, I don't mean to be negative, but in terms of cold hard reality, it amounts to nothing. No trophies. I'd rather we achieved a fraction of those points and it was more than anyone else. Winning is only winning when you beat everyone else, not your own records.
That said, I've really enjoyed watching is play this season. We've developed a style. The kind that we all hoped for when Rafa arrived, the kind of slick movement and passing that we saw from Rafa's Valencia.
When I think about the league next season, I believe we'll win it, but my reasons are completely illogical and purely emotional with no reasoning, I feel we're going to win it, just because I think it's meant to be.
I realise I haven't answered the question. That's because I can't, I don't know where I stand on Rafa, I don't know how many of the things that happened this season where part of his 'Big Plan' and how many have been forced as consequences of things that didn't work out. And perhaps most importantly, I don't know what he'll do next year.
