Rafa Benitez, Football Manager

houllier only has 2 league cups (and something called the nitro cup?) over rafa at liverpool to be fair. I think most people would swap 1 uefa cup + 2 league cups for 1 european cup

had some year in 2001 tho mind

i know that the european cup is a huge prize that's coloured that year and prob the few after, but 2001 is as good as it's been for liverpool fans since i've had an interest in football imo.

2009 was the top year imo - cups are great and all, but an actual tilt at the title with the odd period of being genuinely irresistible is something else. Which makes 2010 so crushing.

I guess if you wanted tbf both of them actually did pretty well, realistically. Liverpool don't have the resources to realistically expect to be winning the league, so being mostly a fixture from 2nd-4th is about as good as can be hoped for, and you'd expect the odd cup success on top of that.

In that context the CL is bizarre, and reaching the final again positively freakish; weighed against a tendency to maddening self-sabotage. You'd take that over consistency though, seeing as the lows never quite tipped beyond lol into, say, Leeds or Newcastle.

well yeah, i mean spurs have been genuine relegation candidates two or three times since i started following them, really last season with the courts was as bad as it got for youse.

WOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED UNDER HOULLIER THO

'was liverpool's second place finish in 2009 ever actually a title challenge' needs to be a thread.

ok as an arsenal fan* i feel i am allowed to say that 4 points may be good and all but liverpool were never going to do it in 2009. never. utd always had a lock on the title. i lived with two liverpool fans at the time and even they didn't believe it was ever actually going to happen.

*see the season before.

lol xpost

Only in retrospect. United were wobbly as fuck in March and April, Liverpool battered them at Old Trafford, and don't forget United had to pull out a forgotten heroic run of their own (inc Macheda goal) to actually claim it - nine straight wins I think it was, which is only a little short of the famous Arsenal run that clinched it in 1998. Liverpool were still top on 23rd of April, and even if it was still unlikely then the fact that it was still possible to the extent of being maybe a one-in-three shot does not equal 'never going to happen'.

In any case, it's the long stretch of momentum that was the amazing thing, that string of 'never in doubt's was a great thing.

and no it does not need to be a thread

RIP big man.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2010/12/23/1293107694078/Internazionale-coach-Rafa-007.jpg

Must be up there with Big Sam and Sven in the money from compensation stakes.

but liverpool were never going to do it in 2009. never. utd always had a lock on the title.

complete bollocks. obv liv fans were gonna be all pessimistic.

new thread imo. Clearly a many faceted subject.

ah don't actually wanna have this argument for the thousandth time. no mind will be changed.

ah no in fairness i'm waverin

what next? sturridge transfer?

ok, houllier gets some credit for assembling a squad that benitez could win a cl with, something benitez never managed to build himself.

Came pretty close in 2007 though.

chris man, i cant do this with you again dude it's too real for both of us :)

Would you want rafa back at lfc now?

i have come around to rafa being the best england manager ever:

i. lives for cup comps
ii. loves trolling the english press
iii. can understand scouse

leonardo installed at inter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9320450.stm

Benitez was sacked after six months in the job after asking the Inter board to back him in the transfer market

so not the full story

(good use of 'installed' btw, I like these words with specific technical football meanings)

x-posts - soz, just realising how angry i'm coming across on here! i really like rafa, not cos of some blind faith or obsession but because i believed in the vision he had and in what he was trying to do. he got liverpool. i'd love him to come back, but it's not gonna happen.

I was reading Pay As You Play in a haze last night and I'm sure it said Rafa was up there with Wenger, and far better than Ferguson or Mourinho, in transfer astuteness. I can't remember the argument, and it seemed skewed by expiry of contract being considered a massive loss, but not to that extent.

not at all chris, i was referring to previous heated discussions tbh

IK- it was skewed like a fox if that was the outcome

the protagonists on this thread are incapable of rational opinion.

rafional though

Let's just clear up here, rafa: actually won things at Liverpool, roy: will never win anything with anyone again.

that's rubbish though.

rafa started with an established top 3 side and gerrard and carragher at peak, roy started with, kindly, a bit of a fuckin shambles. what did rafa look like winning last year? or this year with an inarguably class outfit at inter?

I'd start an actual discussion except your dislike of rafa is the sort of rabid internet argument fodder that ceases to be about the topic. There's probably a similar argument going on total fishing messageboards or philatelists online, just with "lakeside carp world" or "johnson's centenary ha'penny red" in place of "rafa"

well that's a very reasonable position to take, i'm sure. what d'you propose instead then? dropping a fairly tatty rafence and refusing further discussion isn't all that satisfactory.

Presumably not if you need to convince the world rafael benitez is evil incarnate!

ha ha ha it's absolutely true tbf

it burns when ppl cant see it it burns

As always I am focussed on eating celebrations and getting drunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ydPUprifs

haha the old brass eye retreat

let's hope cardiff don't ever get on his bad side eh

loooooooool

pardew at least had the good grace 'to have it made known' in a statement rather than ad libbing some shit excuse

rafa, deconstruct this game

Stankovic speaks:

“He insisted on immediately diving into his training programme with weights and a marathon run until we collapsed. He was persistent.

“The result was we had 30 injuries in October. We beat every record with regards to injuries and it’s because our muscles were on the verge of exploding. Each of us had at least two injuries on the go at once.”

the world of football currently has a rafa sized, rafa shaped caesura at its centre

little caesar more like

rafa

talk abt him

the things he has done

the person he could yet become

this week is a rooney week, next week the boss is back, week after i'm on hols, and tbh we've been thorough itt imo

i would like to identify his special mystery quality that makes ppl virulently wish for his endless failure

i share this wish but it comes from somewhere dark and is really not rational in the slightest

http://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fAlMF.jpg

FUCK YOU RAFAAAAA see there it goes again

rafa talks about doing england again a lot, is he really going to take the newcastle or villa job if ever offered? sunderland even? it seems impossible to imagine

presumably his stock is still high enough in spain for a dece job to eventually crop up there