Comments on: Why Rafa Benitez Deserves Control of Liverpool’s Transfers

By: Shazback

Shazback — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:57:27 +0000

GoHicks&Gillet : Houllier arrived at Liverpool in 1998, but his 1998-1999 season was marred by the extremely difficult start he had due to “co-managing” with Roy Evans. Liverpool’s previous 3 finishes were : 3rd, 4th and 3rd. In 6 seasons he finished 7th (with Roy Evans), 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, 4th. He also won a few things (2 League Cups, 1 FA Cup, 1 UEFA Cup), so perhaps he wasn’t all bad?

I could even go further, and point out that Liverpool’s 2004-05 squad that won the CL was almost entirely his. The only players Benitez brought in that had any playing time were Alonso and Garcia. So whilst it’s testament to Benitez’ man-management and tactical skills, it says nothing about his ability to build a team. Furthermore, in Valencia he also had a sporting director who made his transfers for him (cue his “I asked for a lamp and got a table” rant), so the same argument can be made.

I must have missed when Liverpool weren’t part of the “top 4 clubs” (they never spent more than one season outside the top 4, and Houllier finished 2nd barely three seasons before Benitez took charge), as well as when they weren’t one of “Europe’s top clubs” (Houllier won the UEFA Cup, and took Liverpool to the quarter-finals of the CL just two years before Benitez took over).

Houllier spent 104.5M£ in six seasons. Rafa has already spent 170M£ in five. Sure, winning the CL meant he had money to spend that Houllier didn’t. But if Houllier had been able to splash a bit more cash (on Anelka, who he wanted but that was “too expensive”, Mexès, who preferred a much larger paycheck in Roma, Essien, before he became big at Lyon but the board refused the 6-7M£ transfer demands of Bastia…) he could have Torres and Mascherano too.

After all this season, how often has Liverpool’s success or failure in a match boiled down to one player? Gerrard and Torres’ heroics to score, Mascherano and Reina’s defending (and Agger’s when he plays). But that means that there’s a problem in building the squad. What other team that’s “mounting a title challenge” seemingly only has four players? Chelsea? Lampard-Cech-Terry-Carvalho… And then Essien-Anelka-Ballack-Bosingwa-Cole. Man U? Vidic-Ferdinand-Ronaldo-Rooney… And then Giggs-Carrick-Evra.

“The thing I can’t believe is that some people are suggesting that money should be saved up to buy one top player rather than other players that are cheaper. DOH!”

Uh, yes. Ferguson didn’t want to splash out more than 22M£ on Berbatov probably because of several reasons. First, he didn’t think Berba was worth much more than 22M£. Second, he probably had a player lined up for about 6-7M£ he wanted to buy as well as Berbatov. Third, he doesn’t have unlimited money to spend, but only 30-35M£. Benitez is in the same situation. He had, perhaps, 30M£ to spend. But that means that if you buy Dossena 7M£, you can’t go crying to the board because you want to buy Barry and Villa aren’t going under 25M£, so you need the board to cough up 5M£ more. As I mentioned previously, I don’t buy into the rumor that Keane would have been someone else’s choice than Benitez’s, or that at the very least I doubt it would have gone through without Benitez’s vetting. He spent more than Man U this summer. And he got players in the same positions (striker [Keane/N'Gog-Berbatov], wing-back [Degen/Dossena-Rafael/Fabio]) in some cases, but also in other positions (winger [Reira, althoug he will be able to be compared with Tosic], goalkeeper [Cavalieri]). So, whilst Ferguson spent 30M£ this summer, Rafa spent 40M£. Reira is a success. But he’s the only one. Keane isn’t working, whilst Berba has at the very least been decent. Degen hasn’t played a match, so we can’t judge him yet, but he doesn’t have Rafa’s confidence, and Dossena has been far from good. Rafael and Fabio on the other hand have been mightily impressive, Rafel almost already the first choice at right-back, and Fabio on his debut after recovering from injury. N’Gog is very promising, but he’s more a long-term solution like Macheda (I’m not comparing him to Wellbeck or Campbell, both youth products, nor Manucho, much older), and Cavalieri is an unknown.

If Benitez hadn’t splashed 7M£ on Dossena, 8M£ on Rieira, 3.5M£ on Cavalieri and 1.5M£ on N’Gog, he’d be a long way towards having the 25M£ that Villa wanted for Barry. Perhaps even if he sold Voronin (instead of giving him a season on loan) and Pennant (whom he seems to consider far inferior to Kuyt) this summer he’d have enough money to buy Barry and one of his picks.

I mean, really… 45 players in 5 seasons? Signed? For 170M£? Mourinho didn’t spend that much to build his Chelsea side, and bring home back-to-back leagues.

I would like to also point out that in my opinion winning the CL is a combination of talent, work and luck. So yes, Rafa was “lucky” to win the CL 2005. But that doesn’t diminish his victory. Mourinho was “lucky” to win it with Porto in 2004, and Ferguson was “lucky” both in 1999 and 2008. However, the league is not so much a matter of luck in my opinion, and winning the league with a team that has been chosen by himself is probably one of the greater tests of managing capacity.

Benitez is a great man manager and tactician, but I do not feel that he has the squad manager capacity that, say, Arsène Wenger has. All of Benitez’s successes have come with a team that had a minority of “his” players in them (CL 2005 final? 2 of his players in the starting XI, 0 coming on as a sub. FA Cup 2006 final? 4 of his players in the starting XI, 2 coming on as subs). And in both cases the game was changed by players that he didn’t bring to the Mersey (Smicer and Gerrard for the 2005 final, Gerrard alone in the 2006 final), as well as requiring penalties, so it would be difficult to argue that it was “his players” who turned an “average” team into a “winning” team.

By: Django

Django — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:46:32 +0000

Not sure I agree that Liverpool play a “pressing, attacking game.” Often times our attack is slow and methodical. If we are pressing, it’s more often than not due to the tactics of the side we are up against. Few and far between are the times that we play a true “pressing” game; our attack often starts forward and stalls, with the ball played back to defense or deep midfield. The ManU game was somewhat of an anomaly; I haven’t seen Liverpool flow like that in the passing game and moving forward any other time this season except Newcastle, and I suspect that Newcastle would have had difficulty defending rocks that day. We have been able to maintain possession for a ridiculous amount of time in a few matches, but that also seems to be the times we are frustrated the most. I agree that the knee jerk “Rafa gone” right now is not the best solution, but it just seems that the team lacks cohesion. When I lack cohesion with my friends we trade underwear for awhile. Not briefs, that would be gross. You have to draw the line somewhere. Maybe boxer briefs, those are a little looser. Nothing like the feel of another man’s underpants to unite a cause.

By: True

True — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:49:41 +0000

I agree with the post above. Some people are too knee jerk and opinionated and think they know best

By: GoHicks&Gillet

GoHicks&Gillet — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:48:09 +0000

Let’s put this into perspective:
Rafa was given the brief to challenge for the EPL. He’s doing that. He’s rebuilt the squad – from the counter attacking side that Houllier built. Liverpool play a pressing, attacking game (evident against Wigan, Newcastle, Man Utd, Everton!!!). A sideways pass is not always a bad thing if the side is keeping the ball. It’s not all about Keegan/Allardyce tactics of getting the ball up the pitch quickly.

He was under pressure to challenge for the title so any players that didn’t make the grade have been shipped out quickly.

The thing I can’t believe is that some people are suggesting that money should be saved up to buy one top player rather than other players that are cheaper. DOH!

And WTF does unorthodox mean? You mean he looks at how fit the players are? Shock horror.

Ever since Rafa has arrived in England there have been people queueing up to take shots at the guy sometimes in a rather xenophobic way. Overall (incl Valencia) the guy has won a few things:

2 Spanish League titles
1 European Cup
1 Uefa Cup
1 FA cup

And taken Liverpool to
4 cup finals
3 European Cup semi finals
A record points hall of 82 for Liverpool
Established Liverpool in the top 4 clubs and one of the top European clubs (again!)

Now try and tell me all this is
a) a fluke
b) due to unorthodox methods
c) because he has trouble talking to the players
d) he signed too many players
c) some players were on a free transfer

Or could it be:
d) because he is both methodical and progressive – very different to the old days of kick and rush

By: Thusa, M

Thusa, M — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:51:06 +0000

I am not going to sit here and ask for Rafa to be fired but I will say I doubt his adaptation to the EPL. He seems clueless most of the time. He has bought so many players over his tenure it has become a circus. Rafa does not need expensive players to beat . He has not fully utilised what he has at his disposal. So many squad players has potential but Rafa has failed to unlock that from players. Imagine Babel at ManU. He would be their trump card. Lucas does not look like he can be anything special for Liverpool but Rafa persists with him at the expense of Alonso. Why rest players when you need three points? Surely beating Wigan would have been ideal and at least a draw against Chelsea. This is disheartening to say the least. Drawing with Wigan should be equivalent to a disappointing loss. YNWA

By: Gopal

Gopal — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:00:10 +0000

Well any manager should have the complete authority over what players he wants to bring and what he wants to sell (unless the player being sold is like so iconic as the club itself, for e.g. Kaka for AC milan, Raul for Real Madrid etc.).

Rafa definitely deserves that much freedom.

Check my soccerblog at

http://soccerzlife.wordpress.com/

By: miele

miele — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:41:35 +0000

Please let Rafa stay! Loved his substitutions vs Wigan.

By: Django

Django — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:25:42 +0000

Rafa doesn’t deserve to be in charge of side selection or substitutions right now, let alone transfers.

By: dp

dp — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:38:59 +0000

Pure monkey bollocks Rafa is. I’ve been biting my tongue for a while with him, and even thought his ‘facts’ rant a few weeks back was brilliant, albeit a bit early and slightly paranoid. What we’ve seen since is a guy who, when his chips are down, micromanages to the point where creative players are turned into confused side-passing drones lacking confidence and a once-present first touch (Lucas, Babel) or mediocre talents whose greatest attribute is their loyalty to tactical instructions (Aurelio, and especially Kuyt). It’s not just that Rafa’s had a rather mixed record in the transfer market (to be kind), but the bigger problem is that he fails to get the best from many of his players and that he lacks the emotional connection and intangible feel for the game that great managers invariably possess.

Parry to be sure shares some of the blame for his rather poor marketing efforts and transfer blunders (Itandje remaining on the third string making millions due to a breakdown with Galatasaray; the Barry debacle), and for the first time in my life I agree with Tom Hicks that he needs to go. But given Rafa’s sheer inability to adapt, the unstable ownership situation, and the sapped confidence of the players, this (regardless of table position or European considerations) may just be the best time to clean house and bring in a new management duo while ownership changes hands and settle things once and for all.

May I just add, to finish off this rant properly: “I WOULD LOVE IT IF WE BEAT THEM–LOVE IT”

/exhales, collapses

By: Ak

Ak — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:11:40 +0000

“Fuck you all” = pure poetic genius. I tip my hat to you…if I were wearing one, of course.

Anyway, I’m with Shazback: Rafa’s signings have just been rubbish. He’s spent almost as much as Fergie has, but although Fergie has bought the likes of Kleberson, Taibi, Fangzhou etc., he’s also bought Rio, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Rooney, Ronaldo…Liverpool have nowhere near this quality in their squad. Parry may be an idiot, and a dangerous one as far as Liverpool’s ambitions are concerned, but it can’t be all his fault. Parry needs to go, and Rafa needs a slap.

Also, wasn’t it rumoured that Rafa has — how shall I say it — unorthodox means of picking his team? That he picks his squad based on statistical data accumulated during training sessions? I’m just saying…