Rafael Benitez

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I agree, changing opinion on a manager is absolutely fine.

[Guest TheBallWinner]

That Daily Mail article had 1 or 2 errors in it also.

 

I wish the stuff I wrote about Rafa and NUFC got publicity like that

[Guest firetotheworks]

I agree, changing opinion on a manager is absolutely fine.

 

There are limits Ian.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I agree, changing opinion on a manager is absolutely fine.

 

There are limits Ian.

 

Et tu KI?

[The College Dropout]

3 weeks too late for anyone. Did we get thrashed by Chelsea. Go on holiday for 2 weeks to then lose to Bournemouth?

 

[Mole_Toonfan]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

I agree just you know how it is and it's not exactly the first time old posts have been brought up, especially when they are opinions which tend to not coincide to general opinion.

 

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

It wasn't that way like, loads of people didn't rate Rafa at Liverpool, Inter and Real. Obviously there's a big difference when he's at Newcastle and you cut the cloth of your opinion accordingly. I hated the way his Liverpool side played, they were horrible to watch a lot of the time, but when it's your own team your feelings are totally different.

[mickthemagpie]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

[Elliottman]

It wasn't that way like, loads of people didn't rate Rafa at Liverpool, Inter and Real. Obviously there's a big difference when he's at Newcastle and you cut the cloth of your opinion accordingly. I hated the way his Liverpool side played, they were horrible to watch a lot of the time, but when it's your own team your feelings are totally different.

 

Really?

[Guest firetotheworks]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

 

I rated his record, I just didn't like the way Liverpool played a lot of the time, they were very huff and puff whenever I watched them they often beat technically better teams with effort alone. When you're watching as a neutral and want decent football, it's crap to watch. When it's your own team, it's brilliant. That and him wanting to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth Barry, which is still absolutely crackers, as much as I love the man.

[Nobody]

No idea what you're on about tbh. I don't bother with transfer stuff.

He kept going on and on and on all summer about how our price on Sissoko was daft and how he was "proven right" because no one came in for him. Then of course, two parties did come in for him at our valuation and he ended up looking even more of a tit.

[Elliottman]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

 

I rated his record, I just didn't like the way Liverpool played a lot of the time, they were very huff and puff whenever I watched them they often beat technically better teams with effort alone. When you're watching as a neutral and want decent football, it's crap to watch. When it's your own team, it's brilliant. That and him wanting to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth Barry, which is still absolutely crackers, as much as I love the man.

 

Did you not read the reason why he tried to do that?

[Guest TheBallWinner]

2005 - CL Winners.

2006 - CL Last 16 - FA Cup Winners.

2007 - CL Final.

2008 - CL Semi Final.

2009 - CL Quarter Final.

 

Liverpool under Rafa.

 

Not including the 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the Premier League. If any Liverpool "FAN" doesn't rate him it's because they're a bit daft.

[TRon]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

 

I rated his record, I just didn't like the way Liverpool played a lot of the time, they were very huff and puff whenever I watched them they often beat technically better teams with effort alone. When you're watching as a neutral and want decent football, it's crap to watch. When it's your own team, it's brilliant. That and him wanting to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth Barry, which is still absolutely crackers, as much as I love the man.

 

I didn't like him at Liverpool either, but that's partly because I don't like Liverpool whoever their manager is. I always thought he was a bit defensive, but yeah it's great when it's your team and suddenly you stop shipping goals.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

 

I rated his record, I just didn't like the way Liverpool played a lot of the time, they were very huff and puff whenever I watched them they often beat technically better teams with effort alone. When you're watching as a neutral and want decent football, it's crap to watch. When it's your own team, it's brilliant. That and him wanting to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth Barry, which is still absolutely crackers, as much as I love the man.

 

Did you not read the reason why he tried to do that?

 

Yeah, I did. Versatility and the English Gerrard/Barry relationship iirc. Still daft imo.

[Guest firetotheworks]

2005 - CL Winners.

2006 - CL Last 16 - FA Cup Winners.

2007 - CL Final.

2008 - CL Semi Final.

2009 - CL Quarter Final.

 

Liverpool under Rafa.

 

Not including the 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the Premier League. If any Liverpool "FAN" doesn't rate him it's because they're a bit daft.

 

Way to take what was said and run with it like. I said people on here, not Liverpool fans, and I meant more his style of play than his record.

[Elliottman]

I didn't rate him, I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'm not taking it seriously, it's just proper weird how on here you're supposed to have the same unchanged opinion on something forever. It's funny as f*** when certain posters try to explain and excuse things away because their ego can't contemplate their opinions changing over time, or god forbid, their review of a player or a manager ended up being wrong.

 

Why didn't you rate him when he came considering his track record up to that point?

 

I rated his record, I just didn't like the way Liverpool played a lot of the time, they were very huff and puff whenever I watched them they often beat technically better teams with effort alone. When you're watching as a neutral and want decent football, it's crap to watch. When it's your own team, it's brilliant. That and him wanting to replace Xabi Alonso with Gareth Barry, which is still absolutely crackers, as much as I love the man.

 

Did you not read the reason why he tried to do that?

 

Yeah, I did. Versatility and the English Gerrard/Barry relationship iirc. Still daft imo.

 

I was referring to him having to sell Alonso to raise funds, he said people always question why he wanted to sell him - but he didnt.

[Guest TheBallWinner]

2005 - CL Winners.

2006 - CL Last 16 - FA Cup Winners.

2007 - CL Final.

2008 - CL Semi Final.

2009 - CL Quarter Final.

 

Liverpool under Rafa.

 

Not including the 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the Premier League. If any Liverpool "FAN" doesn't rate him it's because they're a bit daft.

 

Way to take what was said and run with it like. I said people on here, not Liverpool fans, and I meant more his style of play than his record.

 

Ahh sorry dude. I don't think my post that aimed at you solely anyway. Somebody on here a few days ago (might have been you, i don't know ) said LFC fans along with Napoli fans ended up hating him or something along those lines. It just astounds me that's all.

[loki679]

2005 - CL Winners.

2006 - CL Last 16 - FA Cup Winners.

2007 - CL Final.

2008 - CL Semi Final.

2009 - CL Quarter Final.

 

Liverpool under Rafa.

 

Not including the 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the Premier League. If any Liverpool "FAN" doesn't rate him it's because they're a bit daft.

 

Way to take what was said and run with it like. I said people on here, not Liverpool fans, and I meant more his style of play than his record.

 

You were wrong on the internet which means you're wrong forever.  Man up and live with it.

[Guest firetotheworks]

2005 - CL Winners.

2006 - CL Last 16 - FA Cup Winners.

2007 - CL Final.

2008 - CL Semi Final.

2009 - CL Quarter Final.

 

Liverpool under Rafa.

 

Not including the 3rd and 2nd place finishes in the Premier League. If any Liverpool "FAN" doesn't rate him it's because they're a bit daft.

 

Way to take what was said and run with it like. I said people on here, not Liverpool fans, and I meant more his style of play than his record.

 

Ahh sorry dude. I don't think my post that aimed at you solely anyway. Somebody on here a few days ago (might have been you, i don't know ) said LFC fans along with Napoli fans ended up hating him or something along those lines. It just astounds me that's all.

 

No worries. Aye, you'd have to have taken things massively for granted to end up hating up as a Liverpool fan.

[Dom2]

There were a few fans who hated him the last season or so, but the vast majority loved him.

 

Xabi Alonso was put up for sale because he was a player who could command a large fee, he had also gone a bit stale the previous season.  Our Yank owners were draining the club, and Rafa constantly had to think of ways of raising money.  As it was, Xabi stayed that season and played out of his skin, and was sold, by mutual consent, the following season for a larger fee than would have been got previously.  Rafa would have been gone had it not been for his bond with the fans.  He it was who kept us informed about what the two tumours were up to, giving us a chance to try and stop it.

 

As for the football, yes he was cautious at times but we also played some really fantastic football at other times.  We played his Valencia in pre season a couple of times and they were a class side beating us easily, so when Moores decided to replace Houllier, Rafa was the man he wanted.  He and Parry went over one Sunday morning to sell the club to him, no agents or anything.

 

If your team were playing Barca in a CL match I'm sure you'd be more than happy with a great defensive display. 

 

No English club fans liked Rafa, including your own, (I've read the LFC thread) nor did the media or the usual boring English managers.  None had a good word to say about him, but we knew we had a diamond of a man and coach within the first week, just by watching his interviews.

[Guest TheBallWinner]

More 6-0's to come!

 

https://theballwinner.net/2016/09/15/the-myth-of-the-defensive-minded-rafael-benitez/

[Paully]

 

Ahh sorry dude. I don't think my post that aimed at you solely anyway. Somebody on here a few days ago (might have been you, i don't know ) said LFC fans along with Napoli fans ended up hating him or something along those lines. It just astounds me that's all.

 

The vast majority of them absolutely love him on here!

 

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=282654.6160

[Stottie]

On the subject of stats, the stats articles I've read suggest that set-pieces are generally underutilized and are easiest way to turn around an underperforming team. We obviously been scoring a lot of them recently, and have just shut out QPR who at kickoff had been the second or third most successful team from them. I wouldn't be surprised if this has been an early focus for Rafa, and that the team will score a higher percentage from open play in the coming months due to the longer time taken for any work there to bear fruit.

 

One context in which I saw the "profit from set-pieces" idea was mentioned was a partial justification for Allardyce as England manager. Personally I think he is a joke and the epitome of the "proper footballing man" dullard mentality that blights English football, but his teams do have a historic record of doing well from set plays. I don't like it, but getting a bunch of players who don't play together that often to score from more corners is probably going to be a more achievable objective than getting them to be more incisive and open teams up. England are a "quarter-finals if we are lucky" level team, so the bar is not very high.

 

It's clear alot of work has gone into set pieces, but at the same time it looks to me like much of it has simply been down to Ritchie (and now Shelvey) delivering decent-to-good balls into the right areas at the right time consistently. They're not whipping the ball in particularly well at pace, but just getting enough bend into the right areas (without floating it too much) to give our big lads a chance. Makes such a big difference when the rest of the team know that 7 or 8 times out of 10 they'll have a chance of attacking the ball, when previously our corner takers were hitting the ball terribly with no timing the vast majority of the time. In fact, we've gone for quite a long time since we last had players capable of putting e.g. decent corners in consistently (probably back to Nobby/Robert). Even Cabaye oddly enough was more "miss" than "hit" when it came to them.

 

We've also now got the lads in the air for it.

 

 

For a long time we had:

Colo, Mbemba/Willo, Cisse, Haidara in the box.

 

We can now choose from:

Lascelles, Clark, Hanley, Dummett & Mitro

 

 

We are simply much stronger in the air as well.

 

Pardew evidently knows nothing about set-pieces. But Palace are a danger from them simply because they've got the right type of lads in the box.

 

 

 

convinced palace lived off the tony pulis set piece coaching for a while under pardew.

 

Sorry for the long quoting but interesting points for sure. While we definitely are better in the air now, a lot of our set piece goals haven't been headers from crosses. I suspect the total may even include breakdowns and second balls, like the Hayden goal and the Gayle header after the missed pen. Against Brighton, the two goals from set pieces were the Gouff volley and the opportunist "err, let's not play for the corner flag" cross and pull back to Yedlin. Both Gayle and Shelvey have scored from direct free kicks. So it's not just headers.

 

But for a Sergio Ramos header from a corner in the dying minutes, Athleti won have won the CL, so they matter in the biggest games and for the best teams.

[Lush Vlad]

* Derby, not Brighton.

 

** Atleti 

 

Spot on, though.  We always hear about how Rafa's team meticulously plan for different outcomes, who should be running where, or doing what, when the ball is in a certain area etc.  So I'm not that surprised that our set pieces have improved.  With his own players, we are starting to resemble an organised, well drilled team.