Am not one of the fans who wants Rafa to stay, but I would give a lot of the credit to Rafa for that win in Istanbul. At half-time, when 3-0 down, with Finnan struggling, instead of taking off Finnan and throwing on a defender, he decided to change the formation and put on Hamann to combat the area were we were getting hammered and that was the midfield, they were over powering us in all areas, but mainly the midfield. It was just Gerrard that got us that win. You can also look at the display Carragher put in that night and the rest of the team. But Rafa does get a lot of the credit for me.
A lot of the rest of what your saying i agree with.
I disagree on the Hamann part. Hamann was a rock for us in midfield and it was a mistake to leave him out in the final in the first place. If he had been playing from the beginning, I'm sure we won't have conceded the 3 goals in the first half. So we can also argue that it was rafa's fault for leaving hamann out in the first place.
Verdict - rafa's not a magician but it took a lot of luck and was probably our destiny written in the stars for us to win it that year.
