Red Rant or Purple Haze

Was this the wake-up call that the lads needed? To my horror, several minutes later, another ball found the back of the net. I could not believe my eyes, here was the team that beaten Hull by 6 goals to 1 on Saturday and yet the passion appeared to have gone. Why were they so afraid of their opponents? I know for days the press had been reporting how hard a team Fiorentina were to beat. It appeared that nobody had beaten them at home and they had the full backing of their supporters.

To everyone's relief the half time whistle came, I made my cup of tea and wondered if Rafa would made any changes and of course the big question on my lips was Would it be another Istanbul. My health is not too good at the moment and I don't honestly think I could have put up with the tears and mix of emotions that I felt that evening.
The half time break was one of those occasions, where I would love to have been the spider on the wall. Reports in the press along with some player interviews say that Rafa had another one of his rants. I should hope he did, if they had been my players, I honestly think they would have run from the dressing room to escape me. Do the team think they are invincible, I hope not, because they won't win anything with that attitude. It is no good going on a pitch thinking that the opposition is useless and then finding out the opposite. You have to be on alert throughout the 90 minutes and sometimes beyond.
I
don't know what Rafa said and I don't particularly want to know. At a guess there may well have been several Spanish swearwords included but they did seem to play a little better in the second half, although the chances that they created went everywhere but the back of the net. Still as the game progressed, it became blatantly obvious that Liverpool were going to have a bad European night. The game continued, the usual substitutions were made, although why Rafa did not use Jay Spearing in place of Lucas or Skrtel, I do not know, because he can certainly do a better job. Ryan Babel came on and tried his best, but it just was not going to our night. The game finally finished with Fiorentina walking away with a win.

I was left wondering about what had happened. Why is it that Liverpool always find the early stages of the Champions League so hard. We normally have some really easy games in the group stages and yet the team always seems to make it seem so hard. There were supposedly 11 professionals on that pitch and yet they game the impression that they had never played together before. I have honestly seen 11 schoolboys play better.
The press of course picked up on the defeat very quickly and the excuses started flying around - Stevie G and Jamie could not apparently believe how badly they had played. Here we have two players that when the going is tough, normally set an example, Tuesday night they did not. All I can say is Stevie watch the dvd of the game over and over again, point out to Rafa as diplomatically as you can, if necessary, that there were players on that pitch that should not have been there. The defence has got to be pulled apart and put together again. The players do not have any clue whatsoever about how to defend. The main thing that needs to be discussed and thrown out the door is zonal marking - whoever invented it did not have a clue about what needed to be done.
I watched This is Anfield after the game and both Brian Reade and David Fairclough could not understand why Rafa had not made changes at half time. They both know more than me about football, I am sure, but I totally agree with them. Why wait to the 65th minute and loose what could have been a twenty minute window, where new players could possibly have made a bigger difference to the game. Brian was asked if he felt, the result would make any difference to the Chelsea game at the weekend, Brian said that he had every confidence in them winning, especially after what Rafa may have said to them at half time. I admire Brian and his journalism, but I am sorry, for once I am going to have to disagree with him. With the mentality they had on Tuesday night, I honestly cannot see them winning at the weekend. They are obviously aware that Petrczech has been suspended, so the fear of his goalkeeping has been taken away. I just hope that Stevie and the team realise that complacency does not work, and will again catch them out. Has a lesson been learnt from Tuesday, I hope so, but I have niggling doubt, that will just not go away.

What I will say though is, if the team play like that again, I will be tempted to go to Melwood and take a training session. Something somewhere is going wrong, information and movement is not getting across, so perhaps a woman's touch is needed. Am I angry, yes I am and I think I am speaking on behalf of all the club's supporters, when I say that the performance on Tuesday was diabolical and quite simply nowhere near good enough.

Red Mist or purple haze, if Rafa saw red, I saw scarlet, I wanted my bad mood to be made good, not worse.