Cheque out the stats on Rafa
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THE Rafa Benitez fan club, an increasingly diminishing band of brothers, maintain the Liverpool boss requires more time and money.
Well, he has had quite enough of both. On the financial side, Benitez has now overtaken the £125million spent by Gerard Houllier.
The result? Liverpool are six points worse off than they were at the same stage the season before last.
As for time, he has now been in the job for three and a half seasons.
In that same spell, Arsene Wenger has built a new side that leads Liverpool by 12 points in the Premier League.
And he’s done it for peanuts. The Arsenal team that started the 2-0 win over West Ham on Tuesday cost around the £21.5m that Benitez forked out for striker Fernando Torres.
In the same spell, Alex Ferguson has created another championship-winning team for no more than Benitez has squandered. And yet the Liverpool boss says he needs even more dosh.
During his famous fall-out with American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, Benitez claimed they didnÂ’t understand the transfer market. You now have to ask whether the Spaniard does.
Apart from Torres, his attempts at finding goalscorers have been, if anything, comical.
It all started with the calamitous buy of Fernando Morientes, a player who never settled before returning to Spain for £3.3m less than he cost.
Craig Bellamy came and went, while £9m Dirk Kuyt has managed 11 goals in his last 40 games — and Andrei Voronin one in 16.
When Peter Crouch proved he COULD score, Benitez decided he wasnÂ’t good enough. And what of the other signings?
What ever happened to Luis Garcia, Mark Gonzalez, Bolo Zenden, Gabriel Paletta, Jan Kromkamp, Josemi, Antonio Nunez, Mauricio Pellegrino etc, etc? Yes, there have been successes like Jose Reina, Danny Agger and Xabi Alonso, while Jermaine Pennant and Mo Sissoko have had their moments.
But too many have been purchased on what appears to be little more than the hope they will fit in somewhere.
Then, of course, there is the famous rotation policy which does nothing for player confidence. Now itÂ’s happening with Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun. And Harry Kewell still gets in the team!
Meanwhile, Liverpool lag further behind Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea.
The difference is these clubs still win when they are playing badly — Liverpool can’t even do that when they play well.
Twelve points adrift and Benitez maintains they are in the title race. Same old words, same old tactics, same old results.
And yet the fan club still say: “Give him a chance, he inherited rubbish, Chelsea and United spend more, it’s a long building process, he’s won the big cups...” The record is wearing a little thin.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/sunsport_columnists/article647482.ece -
liverpool fans, you defended him when he was sacked, but is he really worth it??
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he won a Euro Champion medal which only a handful managed to so, that should proved his worth... and i kinda believe that managers should be given more time to coach his way into the players head.. 3.5years is not a very long time to build a league champion winning team.. SAF was almost in the blink of being sack before turning the table.. probably 5-6 years after he took control of ManU that he won them the league.. (stand to be corrected)
on paper most of Liverpool players are not in the mould of true champion, other then Gerrard, Torres, Jamie C and to a certain extend Alonso who else do you have? things are not as easy as yesteryears when a 3.5m Keano is deem to be the england transfer record.. -
Goodbye Rafa
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Goodbye Jose
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Gerard Houllier won us FA Cups, Carling Cup, the Super Cup, the UEFA Cup, but he didn't won the one that matters most. Ask Liverpool fans and they will say they want the League title back. Same goes for Benitez. He had won just about every major title except the League, and like Houllier before him, it seems we are further and further away from the title.
The Americans and before them the previous owner have been kind to Benitez, IMO. They have been supportive of him in the transfer market, and have given him vast amounts of money. True, Benitez won us the Champions League in 2005, then the FA Cup in 2006. But how many of us can really say Liverpool was really vastly superior to Milan in 2005? How many of us can really understand his team selections and rotations? And how much money do he need before Liverpool can win the League? How many dud signings have he signed? Note that Gerard Houllier kept on mentioning about "turning the corner" when he was asked about his side's title aspirations and see where that lands him. Benitez has had too much support, but has shown too little. Without winning the league, Benitez cannot really say that he has done a good job at Liverpool.
We can keep on harping about the glory days of old, how we sweep everything in the 80s, how Benitez won us the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup, but the thing is, people always look forward. And currently, we are struggling. Against Wigan, against Luton. Its not that Liverpool is a club in crisis, but how acceptable can it be that we are consistently under-performing? -
Decent Liverpool fans dun read The Sun.
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I dun mind if Liverpool played well and lost.
But, the present team is simply unwatchable if Stevie is having his off-day on the field or Ah Ben plant another misfit team.
The team that won the CL in 2005 was actually Ah Hou and for most of them, it was their swansong so they played their best.
As for this season, Ah Ben kicked out two players - Garcia and Bellamy.
Garcia is a lazy player but he is a goal wonder.
As for Bellamy, he is still the player with the big stomach for desire.
If you played with him, you would get inspired by him as he played HARD.
Now, we have a bunch of lazy players who do the most lazy task of passing the ball to Torres and make him perform magic.
Once they passed the ball, they applied their brakes and watched the show.
How to win like that ???? -
What is " The Sun " ??? ( i knew the answer , no answers needed !Originally posted by CoolMyth:Decent Liverpool fans dun read The Sun.
You'll Never Walk Alone ! -