Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[La Parka]

2 minutes ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

Everton’s recruitment reminds me of us under Shepherd.

Fading stars and mercenaries 

[joeyt]

 

Doesn't sound good

 

 

 

[Pixelphish]

Sad 

[Dr Jinx]

The delusion over on the Everton board is staggering. They think David Moyes would leave West Ham to come back and have no money to spend.

 

I feel sorry for Rafa, I think he was sold a pup when choosing that job. It’s wearing him down. The timing was against him.

 

I’m all in on Eddie now but I wonder If he was unattached to a club in the near future would he come back in a consultant type role to work on a defensive shape while Eddie then had more time to get his ideas embedded in our midfield and forwards?

[The Prophet]

The comments section is fun. Some still trotting out 'he got Newcastle relegated'

[r0cafella]

Hindsight is obviously 20/20 but what a poor choice Rafa made going there. 

[WillingtonMag]

So glad he went to Everton and didn't end up back here like, hated watching us under him.

[TRon]

3 hours ago, Thiago said:

They can sack everyone below the owner, but he's the problem.

The owner who has spent as much as any in the PL over the last few seasons? Also hired top class managers on the surface as well? If the owner's at fault you could argue it's because he's hired the wrong DOF or whoever is in charge of recruiting players, but most fans would love an owner who showed ambition. 

 

 

[The Prophet]

Marcel Brands, who is in charge of their recruitment, needs to take a certain amount of blame. 

[Yorkie]

10 minutes ago, WillingtonMag said:

So glad he went to Everton and didn't end up back here like, hated watching us under him.

 

 hated

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Couldn’t stand how well organised and motivated we were. 

[Guest HTT II]

Everton’s problem is there has been no real strategy regarding recruitment to fit with whoever manager they have employed, ironically they now have the right manager or type who can figure out the right kind of recruitment as he has done with two brilliant signings for them in Grey and Townsend who would both walk into our team. Sadly, he won’t get the time now and it’s looking grim for him.

[Guest HTT II]

3 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Couldn’t stand how well organised and motivated we were. 

I didn’t enjoy our football, but loved the organisation, the tactical side and I could see what Rafa was trying to implement and it paid off when he got to bring in Rondon and Almiron and further investment in quality players should have saw us challenge for the top 8-6 positions IMO.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, HTT II said:

I didn’t enjoy our football, but loved the organisation, the tactical side and I could see what Rafa was trying to implement and it paid off when he got to bring in Rondon and Almiron and further investment in quality players should have saw us challenge for the top 8-6 positions IMO.

 

Agree with this. He did set up defensively for the most part, but unlike Bruce or Pards, he drilled the team on how to break effectively, that doesn't come by accident. Every player has to know his job and what runs to make. 

 

That said, even when there was talk of who would be our new boss, I was saying I would prefer Pochettino, and that was when Rafa was still on the table. Five years of solid, not very entertaining football was enough for me, regardless of who the manager is. I'm happy we've got Howe here, he's one of the more modern breed who believes in playing higher up the pitch, and that's what is usually more successful these days. 

[LV]

32 minutes ago, WillingtonMag said:

So glad he went to Everton and didn't end up back here like, hated watching us under him.

[LV]

21 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Couldn’t stand how well organised and motivated we were. 

I hated having hope again and feeling like at least our manager had pride in the club and could see our potential 

[Yorkie]

I hated winning 6-0 twice a season! 

[GEFAFWISP]

Just now, Yorkie said:

I hated winning 6-0 twice a season! 

It was such a negative 6 goals though!

[Guest HTT II]

I hated having a proper manager full stop!

[St. Maximin]

Not really towing the party line here, but we always have to mention the organisation, plan and the fact he cared and engaged with the fans to justify the admiration he had because the football wasn't always great, both in terms of aesthetics and results.

 

We just about won the Championship, so you can't have many complaints really, but we really should have won it more easily with that squad imo. We barely used a striker who has scored for fun in that league for a few years now and had several embarassing home results/performances. At one stage it didn't even look like automatic promotion was safe and then Brighton had to truly bottle it to let us win the league in the closing minutes.

 

We were in two relegation battles in the Prem for a while and needed some good runs towards the end to keep us safe. I am aware there was a lack of investment but most of these squads in the bottom 10 or so aren't massively different in terms of quality. In his last season we were fighting closely with Cardiff for ages and if one of us teams had a 'Championship squad' it wasn't us. I also don't recall people talking about how good Warnock was as a manager either.

 

Then the moving to China I also didn't feel 100% comfortable with. Of course his offer here was a disgrace and the financial incentives of his move were understandable, but it was a bit of a kick in the teeth imo that it was a for a job the other side of the world to his family, in a crap league where there was presumably a language barrier. Bit of a weird decision, just like Everton and I guess you could say us too.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by St. Maximin

[jackyboy]

Under Rafa, no matter how good the opposition were, I never felt like we would get hammered.  When we were left with Joselu as our main striker, Rafa kept it tight knowing that come the end of the season goal average could be important.

When people go on about him being negative they forget that we didn't have a decent striker for a lot of the time so needed to play the way we did

[Guest HTT II]

Under Rafa I always thought against a Man City for example, we could win and we did… and with such a shit squad.

[TRon]

5 minutes ago, HTT II said:

Under Rafa I always thought against a Man City for example, we could win and we did… and with such a shit squad.

 But on the flipside, there was always the worry whether we would beat the crap sides on account of being too cautious. I still remember that cost him any chance of winning titles with Liverpool. 

[The Butcher]

Absolutely loved Rafa here, but I must admit that love faded quite a bit when he went to China. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joey47]

My biggest gripe about Rafa's time here is some of the choices he made with the squad. For example never giving Adam Armstrong or Mitrovic a chance in the championship, Ivan Toney less so because he was more of an unkown. Also letting Kevin Mbabu go/never giving him a chance after that performance he had against Chelsea.

 

I've seen some Mourinho comparisons in here and I feel like this is another aspect about him where they are similar. They are never going to excel in bringing youth through the ranks because they will always favour experience even sometimes over ability.

 

This is also one of the reasons that as much as I loved Rafa I wouldn't want him back. Bringing youth through the ranks is such an important and exciting aspect of the game.