A Critical Evaluation of Rafa

[Mr Nike Top]

Every Liverpool fan should be grateful to Rafa Benitez for his considerable accomplishments in Europe and the cup competitions. You can even make a good case for the 2005 European Cup win being the greatest moment in the club's glorious history. Even if he were to leave tomorrow, he could point to his three seasons at Liverpool as a tremendous success.

However, even though I believe he is a good manager, Benitez has yet to take us as close to the title as Evans and Houllier did and we all know that we weren't especially close under either of them although we were favourites with the bookies under Evans in December 1996 and odds on favourites under Houllier in November 2002. With his mixed record in the transfer market there can be no guarantee that he will do so even if the Americans do spend like "drunken sailors".

Benitez tends to recognize and retreat from his own mistakes and realizes that last year was a disappointment so I don't dismiss his chances out of hand. I just don't see much reason to be encouraged by our current situation in the league as we regressed by 15 points last year and we will need make up all of those and more to win the title.

[dww]

What do people think to Rafa? Does he have what it takes to win No.19? Are his teams attacking enough, enough creativity?

Would like to see what people think

He has done a good job creating a solid team pattern and a group of players capable of playing a variety of formations.

He has so far been unable to add flair and creativity to that base. We have managed to have some good attacking play at times but not often enough. It seems likely we need the sort of top class players who can improvise within the framework we have. All of these are expensive, until we have seen what he can do with the attacking players of his choosing it seems unfair to criticise him for this.

Having said that we under performed last year - however by the end of the season Pennant had improved and Kewell returned to fitness which could go a way to meaning that even without additions we may be more effective in an attacking sense next season.

Rafa has a tendency to want the attributes we need in a number of players rather than going for one super player. I think he may need to change this now, it is unclear whether until now this has been purely enforced or he just prefers to do business that way.

This approach has benefits and I think that we are closer to the top teams than last years table indicated. The trouble is each season United and Chelsea improve and we are playing catch up.

I think that his organisation is second to none but a few small things like how we have everyone back to defend corners mean I wish he was more adventurous with. I think we may have to to win no. 19.

In previous seasons we have needed to integrate a lot of players into the team in order to advance the team. I hope that this will not need to happen this season as we have the players to play in a more advanced way. We do however need to add quality and goals from midfield, our relatively easy start to the season should also help.

[DeeGame]

Welcome to Est Mr Nike Top

[BrooklynRed]

For me, he is a tactical genius who has gotten the best out of an under resourced side in the Cups, but in the league his decision to rotate the squad and play players out of position in service to his 'system' is his greatest shortcoming. I understand exhaustion and managing fitness for the side, but he dabbles too much, playing people out of position and not allowing a chemistry to build among the players; Just when Crouch gets going, he's benched for a while. Just when Kuyt and Gerrard start forming an understanding, he swings Gerrard out wide and Kuyt plays deep in service to Bellamy's pace. The reason he has to do this is because we don't have enough depth and quality on the wings. At the back, the discipline has been phenomenal, with Reina and Carra leading back there, we've done very well. It helps that we have some serious midfield support for the back four (the tactical part of Rafa's system that I love), but up top? We need to get the chemistry flowing and then leave it alone. He is a great footballing mind and seems to inspire loyalty in his players (the spate of recent signings by own players indicates they're on board for the project), but i think he could stand to allow human ingenuity and creativity into his thinking and allow the tactics to serve what is best and most creative in his players (not vice versa). He's my favorite manager we've had in ages and I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

[sonsofthedesert]

I have heard this to from a friend with a season ticket

Apparently there has been a bust up with Rafa and the board over transfers with the board telling Rafa to sell before buying.

This has led to a huge fallout and Rafa is now waiting to see how the Capello situation at Madrid plays out..

This is some insider info from a poster on Kraptalk - great init, the insiders just get better.

[Manofthebog]

This is some insider info from a poster on Kraptalk - great init, the insiders just get better.

Funny that.:whatever:

[Mr Nike Top]

Welcome to Est Mr Nike Top

Thanks. Hello to everyone.

[Manofthebog]

Hullo

[Pacman]

Thanks. Hello to everyone.

Hi

[Manofthebog]

Hi

That is a really ****ing gay "hi"

[Sarb]

This is some insider info from a poster on Kraptalk - great init, the insiders just get better.

Who posted that mate?

[Morph]

Who posted that mate?

Dunk He posts everything

[Kenneth]

This is some insider info from a poster on Kraptalk - great init, the insiders just get better.

But it came from a mate with a season ticket. What more do you need?

[Yozza]

I just don't see much reason to be encouraged by our current situation in the league as we regressed by 15 points last year and we will need make up all of those and more to win the title.

Yeah but in fairness we dropped a load of those points just because we started to focus purely on the champions league with a 1/4 of the season to go...

Next season, with some (hopefully) exciting new signings, no World Cup or Euro Championships to affect players & ensuring key players rested after 2 years of non-stop football, another season of experience under the belt for Rafa, & we've a decent start to the fixture list too for once - I think we'll have a real go....

[Pacman]

That is a really ****ing gay "hi"