City (a) - Rafa`s Thoughts!

Can anyone with some football brain give a good reason why Hazard was subbed yesterday..??...I am still thinking of a half decent reason since yesterday..and I have still not found one...rafalution is the only answer that makes some sense to me...I pray we make top 4.

^^^its not his fault..or is it??...

Not at all Layorh...*sighs*

Two games made me give up on Rafa. The youthful team which finished the game against Aston Villa deserved another chance to play together but what did rafa do, in the next game he changed the entire line up. That team to me looked like they enjoyed playing together and you could see Oscar and the young Piazon trying to do so well together but alas! they were never to be given the opportunity again. Then comes the semi final of the world club championship in Japan. He for the first time introduced Mikel - Luiz combo in the mid field which we all applauded but what happened in the next game is everyone's guess and the results are well known. The point am making here is that rafa is not willing to learn and understand his players well, every time players learn to understand and seemingly enjoy playing together rafa destroys that relationship in the next game whether it is in the name of rotation policy or what am not sure. This seems to take away the morale of players. Rafa is a lot more concerned about the well being of Torres and the desire to win the fan's support at all costs. That is the reason he has so often featured Lampard even when Lampard needed rest to keep him fresh. When Demba Ba came he had a lot of enthusiasm to do so well but poor him he soon had to learn that his role was only to support Torres. He has never wanted Ba to surpass Torres and eventually Ba has begun to play as just another day at the office. For me the only player who seem to have enjoyed playing under Benitez is Mata and no other player does. My observation may be wrong but I have seen Hazard lose some bit of momentum because he knows it is either him or Oscar to be sacrificed in most times even when those two have some bit of understanding playing together. You can make your own observations and make your own judgement.

^^^@Kaku...very well seconded by me..@Muleya spot on mate..nice one!

Meanwhile, Gary Cahill has hit out after Chelsea’s defence was left brutally exposed in the Etihad defeat. The England centre-half fumed: “I don’t know why or what was wrong. “Normally you probably get asked to do three or four important things in a game, against Man City I probably had 20-25. “Unfortunately we kept getting asked the question and ultimately there is always going to be a goal. That’s what happened, they had that many chances. “I thought they were on top for most of the game, they kept coming at us, coming at us. “You defend one, you defend two but sooner or later it is going to go in and that’s what happened.” Exactly what I said......The initial set up kept up inviting Man City and we couldn't do squat about it.

wow...what a refreshing post match comment from rafa....this guy is genius in repeating same sentence in different way...every post match comments is the same but is told in a different way...thats called rafa the genius..

RDM was the perfect coach to build us an admirable dinasty, yes he was highly inexperienced, and yes we can do better, but torres ruined his team, imagine if we had BA since the beginning of the season, not to talk of the blonde!!!!

Why did he change formation and wrong subs? am at a los here a clueless manager nonsense

And Bale scores!!!!!!!!!

After mikel's substitution, the team completely lost it shape. Luiz as a lone DM was exposed, confused and clueless. Torres barely touched the call. We were lucky city decided to sit back and see the game out cos had they decided to continue attacking us in those last few minutes(like we did against villa in the 8-0 or city did to man utd in the 6-1), they would ve scored upto 2 more goals.

mq where are u?am missing u

And BTW whatever people her think of Spurs we need to call a spade a spade and duff our hats to AVB..also after RVP without a doubt Gareth Bale is the best player in the BPL..it will be very interesting to see if the spurs can keep him in the summer because rest assured after performances like today the big boys of Europe will come sniffing and levy loves his money...i remember during all the modric mess i was telling some of my spurs fans that i felt Bale was their best player but they were so fixated on modric..it is clear as day now.

@nely and gabeu, I feel ur pain, but were u expecting spurs to lose? I wasn't!! They'll be third and we'll battle forth place out with arsenal and still lose out under rafa if we don't change him, his eyes are fixed on the cup games and that is what he really care about right now. Compare tottenham team with ours and the only player that can start for us in that team is bale or perhaps dembele, yet they are playing better football

Neil Ashton uncovers an EXCLUSIVE; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2284474/Rafael-Benitez-training-ground-bust-Chelsea-players-Manchester-City-defeat.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/feb/26/rafael-benitez-chelsea-criticises-players

There is no way under the sun we're making top four with rafa in charge, not possible. This is when we need roman to react this scousers would ruin chelsea mark my word. #Torrnitez out

WOW..Now we are seeing a bust-up between coach & players...Even if the news is false, this will seriously raise doubts about our players ability...pressure is ON big time to finish in top 4...But, we are not clear on our objective....Now Rafa has to make something clear to the team...Europa League & FA Cup are not important, but Top 3 is...Play with passion in remaining 11 matches, we can even finish at 2nd...But, with on-going saga, I doubt this will happen. We may finish below Arsenal or even Everton at 6th Place