Rafael Benitez

[sbnufc]

Alonso explains Benitez falling out

 

Xabi Alonso revealed he fell out with former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez over not being permitted to miss a game for his child’s birth.

 

The match in question was a Champions League tie with Inter Milan, which clashed with Alonso’s wife going into labour and he asked his then-manager to be excused from the trip until the birth.

 

“I told Rafa that I could not travel with the team with this situation going on,” Alonso explained in an interview with El Pais.

 

“I would travel to Milan when everything was fine, I could get a plane straight out and meet up with the squad but he did not accept this.

 

“I had to make a decision and I opted to spend the time with my family at that moment, and I never regretted it.”

 

http://www.football-espana.net/63708/alonso-explains-benitez-falling-out

[Guest chopey]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night. 

[TheDonis]

A LFC mate thinks managers pass their shelf life in the same way players do. I don't think Rafa has past his, and of course they said the same about Ranieri. But he has some serious work on his hands next season if you make it up and maybe the biggest challenge of his career to keep you up.

 

I've always been a big fan of Rafa, and thought he was a great manager for Liverpool. I put down his career wavering due to some poor choices in terms of clubs.

 

Going to Inter after winning the treble, replacing Mourinho just as Moratti had fulfilled his ambition to win the CL meant he was on a hiding to nothing in a new financial reality. The fact Rafa was the last Inter manager to win a trophy tells you everything. Chelsea, too, as an interim, was not the kind of project or club suited to him. But he ultimately did an excellent job in the end to guide them to 3rd and win a trophy.

 

However, I was disappointed with how he did at Napoli. While he did win the Coppa Italia, Mazzarri had also managed that, and he ultimately took them backwards to finishing 5th. Also, losing the Europa semi-final to Dnipro was a big disappointment. He succeeded in improving the status of the club by attracting big signings, but failed in developing the team on the pitch and developing the players they had brought in. Since replacing him Sarri has had them playing significantly better football. You only have to look at the level of goal output Higuain, Insigne and Mertens have produced and the way they've developed as players to see that.

 

So I'm not sure whether I agree with the hypothesis that managers can pass their sell-buy date. But I do think they can make bad career choices, and become looked at less favourably because of it. Rafa has done that in a pursuit for trophies for his CV. With us he finally has a project more in line with what he had at Valencia and Liverpool, so long as he receives the backing and support he deserves from the board. There should be no short termism to it. He is back in England, close to his family, and in a job where the expectations aren't high and the timeframe is longterm. He needs to prove himself as a manager who can build and shape a team over a number of seasons again. Then, he only needs to deliver one of his usual trophies, and he'll have a statue outside the ground.

 

Think poor choices is a good way of describing it. Inter was a terrible one, albeit sort of understandable after he'd been Purslowed. Chelsea was a bad choice too but he used to get himself back in the top level of the game and used it well. Napoli seemed good and his first season was promising. Higuain was amazing. But there was a falling off in the second season, that's true. Real was ridiculous but understandable given his connection to the club. Newcastle is everything he needs. My God, the squad needs work though. Can't think of another job he's been in where's he's had such a task. Given they go up, next season has to be about staying up. Season after that, kicking on and challenging for cups.

[TheDonis]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him fucking spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

[Hughesy]

Think most managers do tend to have a shelf life.  Feels wrong even typing it, but I really hope Rafa doesn't, given his tactical brain and coaching ability.

[Sir Toon]

There's definitely something went on in the background and aside all this talk of Rafa staying, his persona recently hasn't been that of someone genuinely happy with things.

 

Whether that means he's getting more attached to his job I dont know but even whilst we've been talking over basic maths in another thread, the fact remained that not one player HAD to be sold from the premier league squad.  The club were quite vocal in this.

 

As it was and for that reason of a stockpile of £30m+ being created, that should have been Rafa's in theory to strengthen and make his job easier.  He was hardly going to come out and say the personnel aren't good enough.  Can see grief ahead personally once it's sorted either way.

[TheDonis]

Think most managers do tend to have a shelf life.  Feels wrong even typing it, but I really hope Rafa doesn't, given his tactical brain and coaching ability.

 

They do but often it's because players stop listening to them. Or become tired of them, or lose respect if they've ballsed up elsewhere. Rafa had no respect at RM. But the players at NUFC should be delighted to be working with someone like him, which is why this job is a good fit.

[mighty__mag]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him fucking spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

Bizarrely Jack Colback can bypass this treatment then.

One of the pitfalls in our drop in form along with losing the stability of Clark.

[Hughesy]

Think most managers do tend to have a shelf life.  Feels wrong even typing it, but I really hope Rafa doesn't, given his tactical brain and coaching ability.

 

They do but often it's because players stop listening to them. Or become tired of them, or lose respect if they've ballsed up elsewhere. Rafa had no respect at RM. But the players at NUFC should be delighted to be working with someone like him, which is why this job is a good fit.

 

Completely agree - the cloggers we have in our squad should be grateful to even have one coaching session from Rafa, let alone have him as their manager.  I'm just hoping that our current players are too stupid to understand what he's asking them to do and that he is permitted to rip the squad up and start again.

[Elliottman]

The players he's working with just simply aren't good enough. There's two or three of the starting 11 that are terrified of the ball for a start. That said, there's a good chance we'll finish with more than 90points.

[mrmojorisin75]

The players he's working with just simply aren't good enough.

 

in a nutshell, i think he's trying to balance the abject shite we've got into a functioning unit that doesn't ship 4 goals every game and he's just about succeeding with it

 

if we 'opened up' as some people want i honestly think we'd get humped fairly often a la mcclaren/pardew

[Guest palnese]

The same shite players won 9 in a row or whatever it was.

[NG32]

The same s**** players won 9 in a row or whatever it was.

 

Been a long season tho and weve had players in and out.  Plus weve lost Gayle,  which has slowed us right down.

[Guest firetotheworks]

The same shite players won 9 in a row or whatever it was.

 

That's not really true. We've had suspensions and injuries to Shelvey, Gayle, and Clarke who were all massive during that time.

[Shearergol]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him fucking spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

[TheDonis]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

[ujpest doza]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him fucking spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

Timewasting in the corner didn't work.

Would have been better passing and moving the ball around, or whisper it quietly going for the jugular and actually trying to score more goals.

 

Just saying mind, don't quote me.

 

[Shearergol]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

 

He's a striker. The blame lies with the defence 100%.

[joeyt]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

Timewasting in the corner didn't work.

Would have been better passing and moving the ball around, or whisper it quietly going for the jugular and actually trying to score more goals.

 

Just saying mind, don't quote me.

 

 

I thought the timewasting in the corner was fine and we were managing the game pretty well and frustrating Leeds but it was when the ball ended up in their box and we lost it which lead to us being opened up to the counter attack and Colback made the foul for the freekick in the lead to their goal. If we just kept it in the corner and kept winning throw ins or corners we probably would have seen the game out (even if it wouldn't have been great to watch)

[jimmymag]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

 

He's a striker. The blame lies with the defence 100%.

 

Defend from the front!

 

Another skill Mitrovic is crap at!

[Shearergol]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

 

He's a striker. The blame lies with the defence 100%.

 

Defend from the front!

 

Another skill Mitrovic is crap at!

 

Hang on, so he's to blame for the goal even though he was the furthest forward, 3 players let the cross actually come in and 2 centre backs ignored the runner?

 

There's an agenda right there.

[jimmymag]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

 

He's a striker. The blame lies with the defence 100%.

 

Defend from the front!

 

Another skill Mitrovic is crap at!

 

Hang on, so he's to blame for the goal even though he was the furthest forward, 3 players let the cross actually come in and 2 centre backs ignored the runner?

 

There's an agenda right there.

 

Do you disagree with the main point?

 

Watching Mitro "close down" is a joke. Gayle does 3 times the amount of defending Mitro manages. Well, he is 3 times quicker than him.

[Shearergol]

I wonder if there was something said on Sunday because there was rumours of players moping around the hotel on Sunday night.

 

Rafa is a patient man. But the nature of that equaliser against Leeds will have driven him f***ing spare. Maybe he decided to give it both barrels, though that's not his style. Usually he cuts players dead who won't learn or won't do a job. Maybe that's why Mitro was benched?

 

How was Mitro to blame for the Leeds goal by the way?

 

He comes steaming out at a hundred miles an hour to the bloke with the bandaged head, who beats him easily, and finds space for the pass. If Mitro doesn't dive in, holds him up or jockeys him there, that pass isn't on. He has to cut back inside and launch it in himself or go wide.

 

He's a striker. The blame lies with the defence 100%.

 

Defend from the front!

 

Another skill Mitrovic is crap at!

 

Hang on, so he's to blame for the goal even though he was the furthest forward, 3 players let the cross actually come in and 2 centre backs ignored the runner?

 

There's an agenda right there.

 

Do you disagree with the main point?

 

Watching Mitro "close down" is a joke. Gayle does 3 times the amount of defending Mitro manages. Well, he is 3 times quicker than him.

 

You've changed the main point. I asked why Mitro would be blamed by Rafa for the goal. He's like 6th in line for blame.

[Guest neesy111]

I'm no fan of Mitro, but you can't blame him for what happened on Friday.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

Blaming a striker for making a poor challenge when there were 10 other players behind him who made similarly shit (or even no) efforts ffs

 

Mitro had been on the pitch for 94 minutes and had worked his arse off. Diame strolls onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go and he failed to put any sort of challenge in near the box, yet we're sat here talking about Mitro's poor attempt to challenge for the ball on the halfway line.

 

Murphy was terrible yesterday, again. As bad as Mitro has been in some matches - yet he's received little/no stick for it. Before anyone even says "aye but he scored", aye he did, but Atsu put the ball on a plate for him and it was near on impossible to miss. The remaining time in the game he was diabolically shit and gave away constant free kicks.