the blind and te dumb are easily lead

[HughieG]

Nahhh, this wasn't dire football. This was a team that tried for 90 minutes and balanced it all out.
We're never going to agree with Rafa set ups and that's fair enough.
I stand by digging at him because he deserved it.
Against Man Utd he deserved the plaudits, as did the team he set up for the ENTIRE match to have a go.

I'd love to give him plaudits till the end of the season and beyond of he sets us out to have a god and be afraid of nobody.

Balance is all that's required.
I'm not asking for gungho football as massive risk taking. Just what we saw against Man Utd.

I agree that in too many games we have defended the lead too early, especially against teams of our own calibre or slightly worse that we should've beaten. However, the tactics that we employed against Man Utd weren't that different - it worked because the team was playing well, as ronandtet is also pointing out. And also, like you say Ghost, because we gave it a go the full 90 mins, though we increasingly defended more than possessing the ball and attacking. So it's a combination. But the main thing is that a player like Shelvey stepped his game up (and Yedlin and Lejeune and Gayle and Diame and Dubravka etc.), something that he hasn't done because he's been lazy, bad-tempered, out of form, out of luck or Rafa couldn't motivate him (depending on how you look at it).