As soon as I saw Benayoun and Mascherano coming off I started to relax yesterday.
Exactly!
Masch controls the midfield and I don't think people realise just how important he is in that position. It blows my mind to see him being subbed, while Lucas plays 90 minutes without making any impact at all.
Benny wasn't as influential yesterday, but just having him on the field and having one more player that the opponents have to watch, due to his ability to break and make those in-cutting runs, makes him important. Taking him off to be replaced by Ngog is baffling. I would have rather seen Riera come on for Lucas, and Ngog maybe being used as a last minute sub.
It also takes Rafa forever to make substitutions. It's as if he is guided more by his watch than by what happens on the pitch. He would wait till the very last minute to make a positive substitution, when it is obvious we need to be attacking from the word go, rather than play his defensive, double holding midfielder bullshit.
I believe Aquilani should have started yesterday's match. He would have fit into that space behind Gerrard quite neatly, playing the role that Alonso used to. We need someone who can pa** the ball forward, instead of sideways, which is all Lucas can do. I think Aquilani is capable of becoming a really good player. He just needs more time on the pitch. Same goes for Ngog. He needs more than just five minutes at the end of each game.
Rafa spent a shitload of money on players like El Zhar and other people who only came over to sit on the bench and impress in the reserves, while we have really good players like Spearing and Pacheca who could do a better job, but arent' given the opportunity.
This transfer season should see us offloading El Zhar, Babel (a lot of potential, but a horrible attitude), Lucas, Degen and hopefully Rafa. We could also get a few million for Voronin, because apparently there are some German clubs interested in his shitty services.The money made from these players should be enough to pay his 20 million severance fee.
