Whats the Point?

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Hang on...........

[mersey86]

That's not to say that I'm part of the RCDNW brigade but I'd just prefer to have a little faith in the guy that's took us to two CL finals, an FA cup final and also taken us to our highest points tally in the premiership.

He has earned a little faith, hasn't he?

[Craig_H]

Hang on...........

[Sir Bob]

Are you replying to my post ? If yes, then I have some points to clarify:

1) I have not abused anybody and I don't go that route. Look at all my posts.
2) I have never said it's a rubbish thread but that the discussions are rather pointless because Rafa has his ways. We will end up discussing and rehashing the same views over and over again.
3) GH probably never had the track record Rafa had. He won the league at PSG once and it was some years before taking over at LFC. Rafa did it twice in a very tough league, using the same methods (or close to the same methods) he used at Valencia. There has been constant progress since he's been here. *
4) * Based on that last point, he deserves a little more respect (same for Momo) than what I've seen in here as most questioning have been done in a rash manner IMO. We still beat Everton on Sat FFS.

I wasn't replying to you or anybody else in particular, it was just a general point.

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Just another minute...

[kurtangle01]

He has earned a little faith, hasn't he?

Not half.

He should be judged on what he does over a long period of time and not five or six matches.

If we judge his past performance it has, for the majority of his time here, been quite good. We've improved in the league and in Europe. Perhaps not as quickly as some of us would have liked but we have improved.

I have absolutely no reason to think that we wont continue to improve either.

For those of you comparing him to Houllier...I urge you to go and watch some DVD's from Houlliers days. It's grim viewing at times but you'll see from there that Rafa is nothing like GH.

Even if we don't win the league this year I still think Rafa is the man for the job. I'm more than prepared to be patient and give him the time he deserves.

[molonyg]

There is a similarity of pattern. Houliier put our defence right first. Then he ran into a few problems when he tried to expand our style of play and he went further and further off the rails until he was babbling. I trace Houllier's problems back to the beginning of the 2003? season - we played very well but gave up late equalisers home to Birmingham and Newcastle. I think Houllier then resorted to what he felt more comfortable with - forward momentum ended and that was that.
Benitez is currently moving to a more expansive game - we must be patient and let him develop it. There are many good signs. If the Houllier years had not happened a lot of people would be less jumpy.

I agree, Rafa inherited a poor squad when he took over and had a limited budget to buy players. He hasn't made much of a loss when he made mistakes in the transfer market when shipping them out ie Josemi/Kromkamp/morientes/gonzales. We have a much better squad now then we ever had and finally have the cash to be in a position to only need to splash on 1-2 big buys a season which is the way to win the league like the mancs have done over the past 15yrs and we did previously. Rafa has made mistakes but show me a manager that hasn't. I don't expect us to win the league this year unfortunately we are still short in one or two positions namely a quality left back cover at centre back and an established left sided midfielder.However we will go close. I think we had made a good start this year and we do improve as the season goes on.
LFC has a reputation of having the best supporters in the world and pointless abuse of supporters that goes on in some forums does us no good. So lets get behind Rafa and prove that we ARE the best supporters and deserve our reputation YNWA

[bigfooty]

Even if we don't win the league this year I still think Rafa is the man for the job. I'm more than prepared to be patient and give him the time he deserves.

How much time? If we finish 3rd or worse this season then Rafa will have at best matched Houllier's average during his last 4 seasons in charge. If 4 years and around 140M (assuming we spend money in January) is not enough then someone will need to tell me what is? 8 years and 240M? Where does it stop?

We are no better to watch now than we were under Houllier. At least then we had a truly world-class forward whose strengths we played to. I'm not even sure we're going to get the best out of Fernando because if Rafa's reign so far is to be considered indicative at all then Torres will only get worse, not better, because Rafa simply cannot coach & improve attacking players.

[Craig_H]

Not half.

He should be judged on what he does over a long period of time and not five or six matches.

Can i play devil's advocate and ask whether 4 years is considered a long enough period of time?

How long are you prepared to wait Scott?

[Craig_H]

I agree, Rafa inherited a poor squad when he took over

And since then, he's barely done any better than GH did in the league...

[Dhav]

And since then, he's barely done any better than GH did in the league...

[molonyg]

And since then, he's barely done any better than GH did in the league...

Yep but there was no Chelsea at the time spending fortunes, did you ever expect to see us in the CL final twice in 3 years when Rafa took over??? I certainly didn't. Have we progressed in the time since Rafa has been here? Yes. Rafa has had to choose over the last few years which competition to go for. This year with a stronger squad we have a better chance to compete in more competitions than ever.We have made a reasonable start to the league and are still unbeaten even though we have been poor in certain games. Ithink the time to judge is at the end of the season not after less than 10 games

[Craig_H]

Yep but there was no Chelsea at the time spending fortunes, did you ever expect to see us in the CL final twice in 3 years when Rafa took over??? I certainly didn't. Have we progressed in the time since Rafa has been here? Yes. Rafa has had to choose over the last few years which competition to go for. This year with a stronger squad we have a better chance to compete in more competitions than ever.We have made a reasonable start to the league and are still unbeaten even though we have been poor in certain games. Ithink the time to judge is at the end of the season not after less than 10 games

He's turned us into regular CL contenders and our league positions have been about the same as they were under GH.

Not sure about the Chelsea point, before Chelsea, 90 points or so won you the league and now it's the same.

We only play Chelsea twice so if we do the business against the others, it dont matter about chelsea.

[thekop]

The football forum is the worst part about this site IMO. Too many people get on their high horse when there is a difference of opinion.

Football is all about opinions some may love Rafa some may not but when people start calling each other just because their opinions differ that's when the problems start.

I think people should respect one and others opinion and realise that the majority of the time you are never going to convert someones opinions to your own so you should agree to disagree.

Again people getting on their high horse about certain jokes that they don't like is just getting ridiculous. This discussion has been done to death now and it IMO is getting pretty boring.

Well said mate

Life's to short

[molonyg]

He's turned us into regular CL contenders and our league positions have been about the same as they were under GH.

Not sure about the Chelsea point, before Chelsea, 90 points or so won you the league and now it's the same.

We only play Chelsea twice so if we do the business against the others, it dont matter about chelsea.

You were comparing league positions between Rafa and GH I thought. Chelsea spending and Mourinho spending pushed Chelsea into the top positions, We never did much under GH in the CL no higher than the quarter finals