The Rafa Benitez Appreciation Thread

[Joe King]

Im here for Rafa if he needs me.

Don't wait for long

[desertscouser]

Rafa is a great man and a Liverpool legend and will always be remembered for bringing back the European cup to Anfield. No matter what, that will never be taken away from him. We're one of the favourites to win the CL because of Rafa's brilliant mastery of the European game.

However, domestically he's failed and that could ultimately be his undoing.

[Neil Young]

He's the leader of the pack, he's got the pedigree and anyone who doesn't support him is barking.

[anfieldanfield]

Rafa is a great man and a Liverpool legend and will always be remembered for bringing back the European cup to Anfield. No matter what, that will never be taken away from him. We're one of the favourites to win the CL because of Rafa's brilliant mastery of the European game.

However, domestically he's failed and that could ultimately be his undoing.

Agree word for word....

[Mattimetal]

In Rafa I trust..
A true gentlemen and master tactician, and he's only a season away from taking Liverpool back to the top in the league. Anyone who watched 'This is Anfield' tonight would have realised that Dave Johnson spoke a lot of sense, unlike those of you thinking he's on his way out!

Does no one remember George Gillett saying that they weren't expecting to win the prem this year at the start of the season?

[thekop]

Rafa is a great man and a Liverpool legend and will always be remembered for bringing back the European cup to Anfield. No matter what, that will never be taken away from him.

100% agree bud

[REDSCOUSER]

Rafa is a great man and a Liverpool legend and will always be remembered for bringing back the European cup to Anfield. No matter what, that will never be taken away from him. We're one of the favourites to win the CL because of Rafa's brilliant mastery of the European game.

However, domestically he's failed and that could ultimately be his undoing.

Never truer word spoken, well said Sam mate.
I just hope he can rectify the situation and push us closer to the league if he is given the job for next season.

[Jennings]

Great post Superdan. I am humbled. C'mon Rafa...win us the league.

[Dan]

Cheers Jennings, sad thing is I actually had to make that post because of some of the bull being spouted last night

[Angryred]

As the old saying goes..."Ya get what you pay for!"
This is certainly the case with voronin, pennant, etc.

Rafa has only been backed in one transfer window & got real quality in Torres, Babel, Benayoun etc.
I say that we are missing Garcia for the role who Rafa has Gerrard playing in. Good as Gerrard may be, he ain't no Garcia. Just unfortunate that we had to sacrifice Garcia for Torres as he would have been perfect foil for Torres in the system Rafa wants to play at home.
We need a replacement for Garcia, a decent/top left back & good cover in defence.
These may come this month or in the summer but I'm happily prepared to wait until Rafa had his backing in 2/3 transfer windows to get to where he wants his squad at.
Anyone who expected us to win the league this year needs their head checking! A re-surgent Manchester Utd/Mega Spending Chelsea/Wily & Talented Arsenal team was always gonna be tough to beat. Yes, we've had some hiccups along the way which in hindsight makes us wince thinking if only we had beat...we would be right up among them. I think what has happened against Wigan will galvanise the players to take responsibilty a little more as Benitez cannot do any more than select the team he thinks will win the match.
We are missing one little thing called lady luck who seems to be playing for the other side we meet. We cannot be faulted for dodgy decisions, keepers/players playing out of the skins, etc that we seemed to up against lately!
So, Lady luck, if you're reading this, ya better get with the programme or I'm gonna come looking for ya & give ya a right rodgering up the asss!

My twopence worth!

[dww]

Benayoun cost less than Pennant.

[Angryred]

Benayoun cost less than Pennant.

Then we were done for! Bloody PArry!....

[Kopite_Colin]

..And Benni hardly falls into the "real quality" category inho. same for Babel...he's doused with that horrible tag "potential" and is yet to show "real quality" consistently RIGHT NOW for the 1st 11.

But you are right you get what you pay for. Sadly this has been demonstrated too many times under Rafa in the shape of the following "attacking" players

Morientes, Fowler (MK II), Bellamy, Pennant, Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin, Leto, Gonzalez, Nunez, Benayoun, Garcia. That's 12 attacking players brought in by Rafa who have never delivered consistently for LFC.

Rafa is a great manager, but it's easy to see where his achilles heel has been with Liverpool.

[desertscouser]

Never truer word spoken, well said Sam mate.
I just hope he can rectify the situation and push us closer to the league if he is given the job for next season.

So do I. He's an honorary scouser and we all want him to bring home no. 19 but at the moment that looks far away from happening.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest challenge of his managerial career.

[Kopite_Colin]

I sincerely hope Rafa is man enough to admit his failings and change:

1) his managerial style (including both playing style and man mangement style)
2) his recruitment policy (quality not quantity)
3) stop rotating (play best 11 consistently)
4) stop messing about with formations for the sake of it
5) prioritise Premieship over the CL (preferably both if possible)
6) recruit a top No.2 again ASAP.

I would love to see us win No.19 with Rafa at the helm, because if he achieves that I can really see both him and the club kick on and hit the heights we did under Shanks & Paisley.