I love Rafa, but....

[Le Chacal]

I dont know what Jamo exactly meant with "Man-management" but Rafa made very poor decisions this season and thats why we're so far behind.
I dont give a flying fukc about the league cup or community shield...
We were awful at Old Toilet (worst performance since Houiller's worst days) let alone Bolton or Blue ****es...

Beating Reading and Bordeaux twice + Villa at home...wow if you're satisfied with that you have no ambition at all for our club.
Now we have to beat Arse over there, which I dont think we will, and god knows what team he'll pick...I think it will be

-----------reina------------
Finnan-Carra-Hyypia-Riise

Garcia-Gerrard-Alonso-Speedy

---------Crouch-Kuyt

[Tom]

Man-management has a specific meaning, it means the nuturing of a productive relationship between a manager and employee. Hence AA's use of the quote about rafa trying to raise the moral of a specific player (bellamy) after an ineffective performance. It does not refer to overall team strategey (e.g. rotation). There is no evidence that Benitez is deficient in this regard, in fact quite the opposite if you look at the public comments by players about him.


Your comments about my ambitions for the club are really a bit silly as you don't know me and can have little realistic idea of what they might be, other than what you you think you've deduced from a posting on the Internet!

However, I happen to disagree with what I consider a pessimistic analysis which I don't see born out by recent achievements. We'll have to agree to differ and see where we are at the end of the season.

[Le Chacal]

I know what man-management is...Rafa will never criticize his players in public and rightly so. credit to him for that.

Droping Crouch after he scored 2 goals(goal of the season) or changing Stevie's position every weekend is poor management and can be considered as poor man-management imo.

I might not know your ambitions for our club but as far as im concerned beating Reading and Bordeaux twice is not something im delighted about. thats simply normal.

We'll see at the end of the season, as you said, and probably we'll not be higher than last season.

[Tom]

Droping Crouch after he scored 2 goals(goal of the season) or changing Stevie's position every weekend is poor management and can be considered as poor man-management imo.

You are still confusing man-management with strategy. Dropping crouch or rotating Gerrard without carefully explaining to them why it was necessary for the greater good of the team WOULD be poor man-management. Actually deciding to make such a decision is strategic. There is a difference. As it is, if you look at Crouch and Gerrard's recent comments about this issue they are fully supportive which means that rafa is a very good communicator and man-manager.

[Morph]

I know what man-management is...Rafa will never criticize his players in public and rightly so. credit to him for that.

Droping Crouch after he scored 2 goals(goal of the season) or changing Stevie's position every weekend is poor management and can be considered as poor man-management imo.

I might not know your ambitions for our club but as far as im concerned beating Reading and Bordeaux twice is not something im delighted about. thats simply normal.

We'll see at the end of the season, as you said, and probably we'll not be higher than last season.

Also he doesn't change Gerrards position every week. He's played twice on the left, one specifically to play against Boulharouz because he should have ripped him apart as was shown by Robbie Keane last week. If it had come off everyone would have called him a tactical genius. But Gerrard didn't play to his best and thus it didn't work.

Can't remember the second game but I think he was only there for about 60 mins. As for in the centre I think he's played there once this season, because of injury?

[Ste M]

You are still confusing man-management with strategy. Dropping crouch or rotating Gerrard without carefully explaining to them why it was necessary for the greater good of the team WOULD be poor man-management. Actually deciding to make such a decision is strategic. There is a difference. As it is, if you look at Crouch and Gerrard's recent comments about this issue they are fully supportive which means that rafa is a very good communicator and man-manager.

Not entirely convinced about the very last bit, it's been alluded to by Gerrard in his book that Rafa isn't an 'under the wing' type of manager, and former players like David Albelda have said the same, but the rest is spot on.

His job is to get the team to win, he's not there to assuage egos and make certain players feel wanted.

[Morph]

Let's keep it LFC eh?

[Morph]

So................................................ ..........


A 4pm match on a Sunday, haven't had one of those for a while.

[ronan]

man were really going to miss momo this sunday
and yeah your dead right it is quiet on here theyre all out on the piss,im very very jealous

[Morph]

so gerrard in the middle or zenden? Zenden would cause the least disruption, but Gerrard would offer more.

[Craig_H]

Where is this the evidence for poor man-management coming from? First I've ever heard of it in regard to Benitez.

I think Jamo overdoes his role as forum iconoclast sometimes.

I havent fathomed where the poor man management thing has come from either.

[Le Chacal]

To drop Crouch after he scored 2 goals is poor man-management.

"Peter, I know you were brilliant last wednesday BUT you'll be on the bench tonight", "Steven you will play on the left tonight"(the poor chav Pennant on he right), the last bit was from me...

That is poor management and man-management.

Now DJ you can go back to talk to your Manure friends and understand what im talking about (Ferguson is absolutely spot on with his team selections)...

[Red_hot]

Sometimes, i havent got the foggiest what he's on about...take this gem, for example:

A word on Craig Bellamy Rafa, how is his confidence after missing the penalty against Birmingham in midweek?

I say to him the same thing as I said to the rest of the players when we were not scoring goals and winning games. I said listen, we are professionals, and if you want to change something, you can't talk. You need to work harder and show people that you are good enough on the pitch. Next time he is in a position to try something, he must try. Otherwise he will not change anything.

Yer wha???

Sounds straightforward enough to me. Stop talking about it and start playing.

Speaks better English than some on here!

[SouthAfricaRed]

To drop Crouch after he scored 2 goals is poor man-management.

"Peter, I know you were brilliant last wednesday BUT you'll be on the bench tonight", "Steven you will play on the left tonight"(the poor chav Pennant on he right), the last bit was from me...

That is poor management and man-management.

Now DJ you can go back to talk to your Manure friends and understand what im talking about (Ferguson is absolutely spot on with his team selections)...

Would you agree that Liverpool finished strongest of all in the two seasons Rafa had been in charge? That's the point of rotation. Getting players going when the chips are down towards the end of the season.

Comments from all Liverpool players show that they understand and accept it. Maybe it's time the fans did the same?

[Tom]

To drop Crouch after he scored 2 goals is poor man-management.

"Peter, I know you were brilliant last wednesday BUT you'll be on the bench tonight", "Steven you will play on the left tonight"(the poor chav Pennant on he right), the last bit was from me...

Yes pure speculation on your part, no evidence whatsoever. You still haven't figured out the difference between a manager making tactical decisions for the team and his ability to explain the reasons why he's doing it to individual players - which is man-management. This thread is about man-management - communication. You're confusing a problem you have with Benitez's overall management of the team's tactics with his ability to communicate the reasons he's doing it to individual players. The latter is the point of this thread.

You may not agree with Benitez's rotation strategy but you have provided absolutely no evidence that he has failed to communicate the necessity for doing it to our players.

That is poor management and man-management.
(Ferguson is absolutely spot on with his team selections)...

Southend 1 - 0 Man Utd
Birmingham 0 - 1 liverpool

Man utd still to qualify for the second phase of the champions league, liverpool qualify with 2 matches to go. Utd have started strongly but they have an old spine to their team a couple of injuries over a long season will slow them considerably. Lets see where we are at the end of the season eh, and leave the sweeping comparisons to one side.