Rafa Benitez tells Xabi Alonso: Step things up

[AFII]

Nobody is suggesting he should go now.

But I'm judging him on results, and so far he's not getting it done.

Unless of course we should be happy at being 17 points off the league leaders.

I want him to do his job properly, and giving pathetic excuses such as the ownership situation for him to hide behind for failing to do so isn't helping.

Right now he's making glaring Houllier-esque errors which is costing us points, and he can't hide behind the players either, aside from a handful they're all his buys.

He has the rest of the season to show improvement, same goes for the players, if they win a trophy and finish 4th I'm prepared to give him another season.

But I'm sceptical we'll see him change his methodology back to what we saw 2 years ago, when he kept things simpler and we were more successful in the league.

We simply can't match the big three so fourth is the best we can hope for, everything else is a bonus. It's very difficult to win a trophy so I wouldn't put that into what he need to do to stay.

Fourth is the only realistic goal. It's only because Rafa has done a fantastic job turning the club around that we even can say that fourth is a must finish.

He had to get rid of all the very crap Houllier signings and got more or less nothing for them and in many cases even had to pay them off from his transfer budget to get rid of them. It's only this season that we can say that that part of his job is done and he can start to build his team.

Yes, he has spent a lot but he had to rebuild the whole club from top to bottom with that money and in the same time had to build a team that had to finish in the top four. He didn't had the money to sign players to challenge for the title. If we would have missed out on a CL place then he would have been left with more or less no money to spend at all. That is why he had to sign quantity instead of quality. The CL money was a must.

He could have signed a Torres instead of Pennant, Bellamy and Kuyt for example but we would have been left in a very bad state if the Torres signing got injured.

Next window is the first when he really can start to think about quality instead of quantity and get rid of players that is good enough to challenge for fourth place and replace them with players that will make us challenge for the title.

[MrMichael]

You said it all Mike.

No, I didn't.

[stevie_gerrard_8]

We simply can't match the big three so fourth is the best we can hope for, everything else is a bonus. It's very difficult to win a trophy so I wouldn't put that into what he need to do to stay.

Fourth is the only realistic goal. It's only because Rafa has done a fantastic job turning the club around that we even can say that fourth is a must finish.

He had to get rid of all the very crap Houllier signings and got more or less nothing for them and in many cases even had to pay them off from his transfer budget to get rid of them. It's only this season that we can say that that part of his job is done and he can start to build his team.

Yes, he has spent a lot but he had to rebuild the whole club from top to bottom with that money and in the same time had to build a team that had to finish in the top four. He didn't had the money to sign players to challenge for the title. If we would have missed out on a CL place then he would have been left with more or less no money to spend at all. That is why he had to sign quantity instead of quality. The CL money was a must.

He could have signed a Torres instead of Pennant, Bellamy and Kuyt for example but we would have been left in a very bad state if the Torres signing got injured.

Next window is the first when he really can start to think about quality instead of quantity and get rid of players that is good enough to challenge for fourth place and replace them with players that will make us challenge for the title.

Now is where we will see whether Rafa is up to the task. If he is backed by the board, then I believe we can catch up to the top 3.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

We simply can't match the big three so fourth is the best we can hope for, everything else is a bonus. It's very difficult to win a trophy so I wouldn't put that into what he need to do to stay.

Fourth is the only realistic goal. It's only because Rafa has done a fantastic job turning the club around that we even can say that fourth is a must finish.

He had to get rid of all the very crap Houllier signings and got more or less nothing for them and in many cases even had to pay them off from his transfer budget to get rid of them. It's only this season that we can say that that part of his job is done and he can start to build his team.

Yes, he has spent a lot but he had to rebuild the whole club from top to bottom with that money and in the same time had to build a team that had to finish in the top four. He didn't had the money to sign players to challenge for the title. If we would have missed out on a CL place then he would have been left with more or less no money to spend at all. That is why he had to sign quantity instead of quality. The CL money was a must.

He could have signed a Torres instead of Pennant, Bellamy and Kuyt for example but we would have been left in a very bad state if the Torres signing got injured.

Next window is the first when he really can start to think about quality instead of quantity and get rid of players that is good enough to challenge for fourth place and replace them with players that will make us challenge for the title.

We've finished 3rd the last two seasons.

The manager's spent £70m odd this season.

And 4th was apparently the best we can hope for.

Makes sense.

Before the Reading game we were right in the title race.

But Rafa's ****ed up since.

[AFII]

We've finished 3rd the last two seasons.

The manager's spent £70m odd this season.

And 4th was apparently the best we can hope for.

Makes sense.

Before the Reading game we were right in the title race.

But Rafa's ****ed up since.

No, the players ****ed up by not working their socks off. Not much Rafa can do about that. He can of course bench them but we don't have a good enough squad to do that.

The players should get a big kick in the ass and some of them should be sold as soon as possible because they have showed that they don't care about the red shirt.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

No, the players ****ed up by not working their socks off. Not much Rafa can do about that. He can of course bench them but we don't have a good enough squad to do that.

The players should get a big kick in the ass and some of them should be sold as soon as possible because they have showed that they don't care about the red shirt.

Really?

Who's job is it to motivate players?

And who signed most of these players?

And we have a massive squad which apparently isn't good enough? Why?

Believe me I think the players and the manager are all to blame. But some seem awfully eager to absolve Rafa for our recent slump when he's a primary cause of it.

But then if you think the players are to blame for leaving Torres on the bench against Birmingham for tactical reasons, under estimating Marseille by picking an under strength team at home, playing a 4-3-3 against Reading with Crouch on the left, playing a 4-5-1 at home to Wigan, or playing Kuyt continuously when he's horrendously out of form, you go right ahead.

[flyboy]

going back to rafa's comment:
Lucas was playing really well the other day so we had three midfielders, and we needed to have wingers or strikers on the bench. That’s why Alonso was not in the squad on Saturday.”

Didnt he say that his rotation was solely based on tactics on who we were playing rather than a player's form.So 3 central midfielders in a 442 formation????

What a load of hypocrisy

[flyboy]

so whoever played well against sunderland will play against chelsea?

[Craig_H]

You said it all Mike.

As per usual, you have no proper reply to the points made...

Your normal response - stick head in the sand...(remembering to remove it from the sand first)...

[Craig_H]

But I'm judging him on results, and so far he's not getting it done.

Unless of course we should be happy at being 17 points off the league

It's that simple isnt it?

Either the RCDNW brigade think we're the 5th or 6th best team in the country and between 15 and 25 points worse than the top side in the land...

Or Rafa isnt doing a good job.

Which is it?

[Craig_H]

We simply can't match the big three so fourth is the best we can hope for, everything else is a bonus.

Funny, because i thought we finished 3rd the other season, about 9 points off the pace...

It's his fourth year FFS. £150m later and we're not actually in a better position than when he came. What 'progress' have we made exactly?

Where do you draw the line? How many years of '4th is the best we can hope for' are you prepared to tolerate?

I think it's nonsense, i think 4th is the fecking LEAST we should EXPECT (not hope for) and the BEST we can hope for is an actual title challenge that lasts into March time...

Rebuild the whole squad??? He inherited a squad that was finishing 3rd and 4th. He hasnt done any better.

Your standards are exceptionally low and it's very very sad.

[Craig_H]

No, the players ****ed up by not working their socks off. Not much Rafa can do about that. He can of course bench them but we don't have a good enough squad to do that.

The players should get a big kick in the ass and some of them should be sold as soon as possible because they have showed that they don't care about the red shirt.

I tell you what he can do about it....he can pick the RIGHT fecking players...you know, the ones who are actually better than the woeful bunch. And he can play them in their right positions. He can actually go out to WIN games and not adopt a cautious 'keep it tight and hopefully nick one when they are tired' approach And he can employ tactics which reflect the fact that we have a far better team than 15 of the 19 other PL clubs.

So you see, there are actually a few things he could do.

It's not rocket science either, loads of us have been banging on for MONTHS saying to drop kuyt and pick Crouch, because Crouch scores goals. How long has it taken Crouch to get a couple of starts?

Rafa's downfall (if that's what happens) is of his own making.

I'm not saying he can go on the pitch and win the games directly himself, but what he CAN do is select the right players, in the right positons and use the right tactics, in order to increase his chances of winning. His decision making at times, has virtually left us playing off a 'handicap' ffs.

[AFII]

Funny, because i thought we finished 3rd the other season, about 9 points off the pace...

It's his fourth year FFS. £150m later and we're not actually in a better position than when he came. What 'progress' have we made exactly?

Where do you draw the line? How many years of '4th is the best we can hope for' are you prepared to tolerate?

I think it's nonsense, i think 4th is the fecking LEAST we should EXPECT (not hope for) and the BEST we can hope for is an actual title challenge that lasts into March time...

Rebuild the whole squad??? He inherited a squad that was finishing 3rd and 4th. He hasnt done any better.

Your standards are exceptionally low and it's very very sad.

The other three top clubs(Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea) already had very strong squads when Rafa took over. If you think that players like Smicer, Traore, Diouf, Cisse, Baros, Diao, Pongolle, Le Tallec, Cheyrou, Henchoz and you can count in the state of the Academy didn't need to be replaced by better quality and that around £70m net is enough to challenge the top clubs then you really are living in fantasy land.

Rafa needed to rebuild the whole club, including the Academy, from top to bottom and he had very little money that he could use to do it. The CL money every year was more or less the only money he could spend, nothing else, not even money from the players he sold off.

He couldn't take a chance and sign quality before quantity if you consider that. If the star player would get injured then it would mean no money at all to spend on a weak squad.

The reason to why we could qualify for the CL most years was because the other teams except the top three wasn't good enough, not because we had a good squad when Rafa took over.

We have made excellent progress the last years. Look at our squad now compared to 2004. Look at the Academy now compared to 2004. Look at the value of the squad now compared to 2004.

We can still not challenge because even if we have made excellent progress then it is still not good enough to challenge because we were miles behind the top three when Rafa took over when you look the whole picture.

We have closed the gap and will close it even more if Rafa is allowed to go for his first choice targets.

[Elrond]

This season has just gone from great to disgraceful very quickly...

Our preseason looked good, the players brought in were decent and we were looking strong for a title challenge.

Then Pako left and team understandably started to struggle a little on the pitch.

Then came this HUGE, never ending debacle with Gillett, Hicks and Rafa. And now we also have this distraction of DIC hanging over our heads.

It has to take a toll and both the manager (looks to have aged 10 years this season) and the performances on the pitch.

I really think that once all this **** is out of the way, Rafa deserves one more season to show us what he's got. A season without distractions. A season concentrated purely on pitch performance. A preseason with his new coaching staff, owners that will not interfere and who will give their manager 100% support.

It's the least he deserves for what he has done here...

[Dhav]

It's that simple isnt it?

Either the RCDNW brigade think we're the 5th or 6th best team in the country and between 15 and 25 points worse than the top side in the land...

Or Rafa isnt doing a good job.

Which is it?

Yes Syd, that's the black and white world of football management.