I dont know what he said at half time, but that was a totally different team that came out in the 2nd half.
In fairness, we were the better side at the beginning, until they scored. Then their second goal took the sting out of us and heads we dropping. From the moment they took the lead we seemed to lack fight, tempo and movement. Then the second went in and we lacked them even more.
To see the fight, character and excellent football we played in the 2nd half was an amazing turnaround.
We were lively, played with tempo, got players forward in numbers and had some real purpose.
The manager deserves enormous credit because, for all the brilliance of the players' desire in the 2nd half, it took something special from Benitez to get them back up when they looked mentally shot to pieces when they went in at HT.
He had them believing and, crucially, WANTING it again. I felt after the 1st goal for City, they wanted it more than us and they worked incredibly hard to press us and stop us playing in the 1st half. After the break though, the desire was there for all to see and as much as the players deserve praise for that, it was Rafa who managed to bring that out of them, when all seemed lost.
I'm trying desperately hard to not get carried away, we've not yet played 20% of our league games and there's plenty of football to come. But you cant help being excited at the moment, the strength of character shown today was immense and if it had been Man Utd doing that, the press would've been raving about it for 2 weeks, through the international break and onto the next round of league games. They probably wont with us, but that's fine, i'd rather they didnt build us up too high and in a weird way, i'd rather be quietly getting on with things in 2nd place, instead of being top of the league and turning into the target of everyone's attention and the subject of opponents' desire to knock us off top spot.
Great return from 7 games and a nice time to consolidate and analyse while the international games take place. Hopefully Capello keeps Lampard in for England and gives Stevie a rest. Beating Wigan in a fortnight is crucial and wont be easy but when the league resumes again, we'll be full of confidence and ready to start another good 7 game run, fingers crossed.
All the best for Martin Skrtel, who's been a rock and deserves a full and speedy recovery. And here's hoping all those who go and play for their countries come back unscathed.
Rafa pulled off a blinder today
In fairness, we were the better side at the beginning, until they scored. Then their second goal took the sting out of us and heads we dropping. From the moment they took the lead we seemed to lack fight, tempo and movement. Then the second went in and we lacked them even more.
To see the fight, character and excellent football we played in the 2nd half was an amazing turnaround.
We were lively, played with tempo, got players forward in numbers and had some real purpose.
The manager deserves enormous credit because, for all the brilliance of the players' desire in the 2nd half, it took something special from Benitez to get them back up when they looked mentally shot to pieces when they went in at HT.
He had them believing and, crucially, WANTING it again. I felt after the 1st goal for City, they wanted it more than us and they worked incredibly hard to press us and stop us playing in the 1st half. After the break though, the desire was there for all to see and as much as the players deserve praise for that, it was Rafa who managed to bring that out of them, when all seemed lost.
I'm trying desperately hard to not get carried away, we've not yet played 20% of our league games and there's plenty of football to come. But you cant help being excited at the moment, the strength of character shown today was immense and if it had been Man Utd doing that, the press would've been raving about it for 2 weeks, through the international break and onto the next round of league games. They probably wont with us, but that's fine, i'd rather they didnt build us up too high and in a weird way, i'd rather be quietly getting on with things in 2nd place, instead of being top of the league and turning into the target of everyone's attention and the subject of opponents' desire to knock us off top spot.
Great return from 7 games and a nice time to consolidate and analyse while the international games take place. Hopefully Capello keeps Lampard in for England and gives Stevie a rest. Beating Wigan in a fortnight is crucial and wont be easy but when the league resumes again, we'll be full of confidence and ready to start another good 7 game run, fingers crossed.
All the best for Martin Skrtel, who's been a rock and deserves a full and speedy recovery. And here's hoping all those who go and play for their countries come back unscathed.
Rafa pulled off a blinder today
a hard job 
err ok fella
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