Rafael Benitez Fact And Fiction

Late Late Goal and Misery for Liverpool continues. The calls for sacking Rafa keep increasing every day, so here is something in defense of the man.

1.RAFA IN THE TRANSFER MARKET - read this topic to understand what he has done RAFA SIGNINGS

He has spent a net 90 million over the 6 years he has been in charge. That is peanuts compared to what Ferguson,Chelski,Spurs,Villa and Citeh have spent in the same time and he has managed to outperform most of them.Also note that he has consistently taken Liverpool to later stages of CL and hence generated a good amount of cash which he has not got back to spend!!!.

He has some signed some duds but then every manager has his share, but with Rafa it stands out because due to paucity in funds we cannot afford these. Just to set a context here - Nani(18m),Valencia(16m),Anderson(17m),Berbatov(30m),Carrick(18m), Veron(28m),Barthez(8m) not exactly world beaters are they
FACT: He is one of the best in transfer dealings.

2.SACK RAFA AND BRING IN A BETTER MANAGER :
First of all he seems to like the club and the fans.He DOES not need to be here - he can walk out of LFC any minute and will find a job at any club including ACMilan,Bayern,Juventus,Real Madrid etc all of whom are struggling a bit.
He has been here for some time and most of the players and backroom staff are his people. Sacking him is a shortcut to disaster. And who do we appoint after sacking him? there are hardly any other good manager out there and there is the small matter of about 15million payout to Rafa if he is sacked.
FACT : The club needs rafa more than the other way around.

3.RAFA's RECORD SO FAR:
The squad that he took over consisted of Traore,Biscan,Smicer,Didi on his last legs,an injured Baros,an overpaid Cisse,permanently crocked Kewell and the likes of Mellor,Pongolle etc. Over the years he has built a superb squad at very little cost and we have been arguably the best team in Europe over the last five years. Last year was one of the best title chases in a long time and heck we qualified for CL every single year under Rafa something we did not do regularly before.
Apart from all this we have won the CL in 2005,runners up in CL in 2007 and the FA Cup in 2006. A very agreeable record i would say.

FACT : Rafa has done very well in his time at LFC.

4.RAFA's TACTICS:
Yes some of his moves look foolish but plenty of Manure fans and goners have criticized Fergie and Wenger over some of their tactics. So nothing unique there. Apart from that, there can be no argument that he is one of the best tacticians around.
FACT : Rafa is one of the best tactical manager in the world.

5.LUCAS:
Playing Lucas is something that comes under derision from all corners. Even i poured plenty of scorn on that matter. But there is plenty of difference to the Lucas over the season. He is playing rather decently given the circumstances and is definitely one for the future. To get it into proper context,compare how important Fletcher is now to Manure and the amount of criticism that he had to undergo three/four years ago.
FACT : Lucas is a good prospect.

6.HE IS TOO DEFENSIVE:
nobody complained about all the 1-0 wins that Mourinho had. Besides we did not have a team that could play the all out offensive desired by us.

7.SQUAD COMPARISON:
Our total squad costs 158 million that is a distant fifth behind Citeh[249m],Chelski[230m],Manure[220m] and Spurs[208m]. The wage bill is also a distant sixth behind even arsenal. How do we expect the all so elusive squad depth then? Manure paid 12m for Tosic who is a reserve player for them. How do you compete against that with peanuts offered to him.

8.LUNATIC OWNERS:
Hicks and Gillet must be the worst thing that happened to the club. They have saddled the club with debts of their own takeover and generally behave like complete idiots.

Make no mistake i have some reservations with some of Benitez's methods like Kuyt on the wings,Yossi in the left wing,Babel not played enough but overall i think he is the best man for the job.