Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

Ferguson took over a mid-table side of alcoholics

Never realised what had attracted him to the club in the first place.

I think if you can attack Rafa for anything it's:

- Appalling man management
- Failure to fill gaping holes in the squad
- Freezing out players who could have filled those holes, even temporarily
- Stubbornly sticking to things that don't work

I don't think Rafa's a top class manager - he's just not in the Ferguson/Mourinho/Ancelotti bracket. But he's not bad, and he's been in a pretty bad financial situation that was out of his control. Although spending £32m on Aquilani and Johnson was not the wisest of moves under those circumstances - I think it's possible that he was suddenly told there was no more money after making those signings.

He'll probably do quite well in Italy but following Mourinho is pretty much impossible.

rafa made mistakes. he had flaws. i know that, his biggest fans know that, HE knew that! it's why he made notes whenever we scored. why he wasn't happy when we were hammering villa 5-0 because it should have been 6. i love that. he strove for perfection. an imperfect perfectionist. he had a clear vision of what he wanted the club to be. in his 1st week at the club he asked for a 5000 seater stand to be built at the academy. he and his family worked tirelessly for the community, which means as much to me personally as him masterminding 3 points on a saturday. he sat cross-legged on the floor during the chelsea semi-final penalty shootout so the fans behind him could see. he is such a lovely guy, and he gave me some of the happiest moments of my life, seriously life-changing moments. and for that i am eternally grateful.

― The referee was perfect (Chris), 09 July 2010 15:37 (13 minutes ago)

He had serious rapport with the fans, and look, on a personal level he seems like a guy with a sense of humour & whatnot. I was roaring for Lpool on the european nights in 2005 along with just bout everyone else. I thought he'd be a huge improvement on Houllier when he signed, in fact it was me telling my LFC supportin mates what a great job he'd been doing in Spain.

but what can i say, 5 years of passive-aggressive public snark instead of football club management converted me fully.

Matt DC OTM, in a very understated way.

Also, took Ferguson 6 years to win the league didn't it?

― The referee was perfect (Chris), Friday, 9 July 2010 16:50 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Actually did it though? And has built quite an exciting young team for Utd to live on for the next 10 years, incl. some young exciting academy players like Gibson and Welbeck. Whereas Rafa spent the past 6 years making Liverpool into something similar, I assume?

(can't believe we got matt into this thread FWIW)

Matt DC OTM, in a very understated way.

― ,,,,,,eeeeleon (darraghmac), Friday, 9 July 2010 16:54 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah it took ferguson 6 years to win the league- he did win the FA cup in 1990 when it was a big competition, but he was also on tenterhooks for most of that campaign and was within a game of losing his job in the replay against palace that year.

Also do not believe that Rafa/upper management were so imcompetent to as to only notice there was no money after AA/GJ signed. Surely every manager in the league is told there is [x] in the bank for transfers, [y] for wages, [z] for bonuses before they start calling up other clubs?

But then either way they come off looking bad at their jobs.

i reckon it's too to early to call Aquilani. was told he'd be out for a month when he signed, took the docs on their word, what can ya do. he's looked good and i'm excited to see what he can do next season with a full pre-season under his belt.

xxp, this is LFC we're talking about.

Do you remember last season at all? Because I remember AA getting fit by October and then him playing about 5 games after that because Rafa decided he didn't actually like him.

I agree that it's too early to call Aquilani, but he's had serious injury doubts cast over him throughout the past few years. Definite discount material, and I'm not sure did ye get that discount.

this is the lfc that rafa made sure he took over all transfer decisions after rick parry cocked up a couple times in the 80+ transfers he sorted for rafa.

AA made 26 appearances, started 13 of those.

practically up there with world's best striker fernando torres

this is the lfc that publically courts other managers, does everything they can to undermine the manager, shadows the manager in press conferences to make sure he doesn't let slip that his bosses are slimy cunts, sits in on team talks and goes into the changing room at half time, says that money made from players sold will be available to buy other players and then uses it to pay off debt, hides behind the media to defend it's decision to sack the manager, employs a chelsea fan who can't even attend matches but somehow makes time to sip champagne at chelsea's player of the year awards, and the lfc that doesn't have the bottle to tell the manager to his face that he's got the sack.

it's also the lfc that told the press rafa had cancelled 2 meetings with the chairman when in fact he was on a train across europe because of a cloud of ash, and then couldn't physically meet the chairman because he didn't want to attend the chelsea match.

Dude if they were playing Chelsea I really think Rafa should've gone.

this is the lfc that publically courts other managers, does everything they can to undermine the manager, shadows the manager in press conferences to make sure he doesn't let slip that his bosses are slimy cunts, sits in on team talks and goes into the changing room at half time, says that money made from players sold will be available to buy other players and then uses it to pay off debt, hides behind the media to defend it's decision to sack the manager, employs a chelsea fan who can't even attend matches but somehow makes time to sip champagne at chelsea's player of the year awards, and the lfc that doesn't have the bottle to tell the manager to his face that he's got the sack.

― The referee was perfect (Chris), Friday, 9 July 2010 17:09 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sounds like 95% of other clubs tbrr.

we're not 95% of other clubs though. there's a way of doing things at liverpool which has been conveniently forgotten in the last couple of years.

So bad manager at badly run club. Story of newcastle/athletico/lazio/spurs/etc. amirite?

good manager at badly run club.

Still don't understand what makes him a good manager tbh. Feel free to have a go at explaining this without referring to the club messing up all the things he should have been doing.

Pros- won the CL.
Bought Torres, Reina, Alonso, Masch, Benny Noon.
Beat lots of 10 men teams (Inter, Everton, Utd spring to mind.)

Weaknesses- can we blame his inability to understand wide positions on the board?

Maxi's turning out to be a pretty good wide player. Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua have been encouraged to get forward and provide width.

encouraged to get forward, provide width and lose all ability to defend.

Am going to fully support this dude next season btw. Can't wait to see what he does for Balotelli's career.

you can't be in 2 players at once. lucas and masch fill in when johnson/insua go forward.

you can't be in 2 players at once. lucas and masch fill in when johnson/insua go forward.

― The referee was perfect (Chris), Friday, 9 July 2010 17:29 (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

think some wags have perfected the art actually.

also lol at the idea that full backs cannot both defend and attack. have you ever seen cole or evra or sagna or maicon or warnock etc. etc. etc.

http://browniestories.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cat-ping-pong.jpg

apparently former liverpool goalkeep nikolay mihaylov (another academy kid/flop whichever way you look at it) got caught up in some shit with the bulgarian mafia when he was dating miss bulgaria.

this thread has not been a huge success since i went to the hospital and back tbh

NV where'd you come up with that pic, and is it g johnson defending/attacking, or is it this thread, or some happy double jeopardy type of general mishmash?

this is the lfc that publically courts other managers etc

Uh yes, I agree with all that. I think you're arguing the pro-Rafa case here. The present board at LFC are dismantling the club brick by brick and are the reason for its recent decline. It has not been as a result of Rafa's management.

Present board who gave him a huge contract and all the power to... spend £35m on two knackered players he doesn't like and come 7th?

I've always been able to separate the shite going on behind the scenes and Rafa's management of the situation he was in for a salary of 6m a year.

xxxpost

was looking for a game of ping pong to symbolize thread rhythm and made the happy discovery of cat ping pong

Rafa is an excellent European Cup manager. He has outsmarted Mourinho in the past and I think he is more than capable of doing so again in the CL with Inter.

(And Mourinho did seem to have an easier ride in Italy with Juve and AC down and seemingly directionless. But I only follow Italian footie if its on terrestrial/freeview)

So much battling to make the wildest claim on this thread, as such not worth commenting on beyond that.

Present board who gave him a huge contract and all the power to... spend £35m on two knackered players he doesn't like and come 7th?

― fuque santa cruz (a hoy hoy), Friday, 9 July 2010 20:50 (Yesterday)

Are you referring to Aquilani and Glen J? I've genuinely not heard that Rafa 'doesn't like' either of them. Where have you heard this?

Just assumed by the way he didn't play Aquilani?

Ronan this is all for you man, don't leave us here all alone

yeah i can talk bullshit about rafa in my sleep, i need some real competition to start busting out the proper challops.

Rafa is an excellent European Cup manager. He has outsmarted Mourinho in the past and I think he is more than capable of doing so again in the CL with Inter.

(And Mourinho did seem to have an easier ride in Italy with Juve and AC down and seemingly directionless. But I only follow Italian footie if its on terrestrial/freeview)

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 July 2010 09:24 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Pfft every time a manager's team beats another manager's team they're smarter now? Rafa's always managed his fair share of one-off wins- cup manager imo.

Mourinho's easy ride at Inter could be equated to Benitez having it very soft in only having a poor united to beat the season before last, tbh. He still got lauded for failing then.

I had thought Spurs did well last season until now - hadn't really considered that maybe they only just stumbled into 4th in the weakest premiership field ever assembled

Shit, I promised myself I wouldn't feed this thread ...

weakest premier league ever assembled

rafa's liverpool finished 7th.

go on.