Rafa Benítez (now unemployed)

[Happinesstan]

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these wankers decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least.

 

Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praising the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

 

They actually spent £44M to replace them both.

[Paully]

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these wankers decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least.

 

Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praising the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

 

They actually spent £44M to replace them both.

 

FFS I forgot about that 

 

 

[Kanji]

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these wankers decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least.

 

Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praising the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

 

 

 

Couldn't agree with you more, Paully. Spot on as usual tbh.

[cambb]

Has anybody worked out what the net spend is between Rafa and Bruce todate?

[Hhtoon]

I think on a caulkin pod on the athletic it was mentioned that Murphy was highly rated by Nickson and was really one Rafa got behind rather than lead himself.

 

Wouldn't that make him a puppet ala Bruce/Joelinton?

[Paully]

Letting this man walkaway and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

[Si]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

It's enough to make you weep man, imagine that meeting with Bruce.

[KaKa]

This is so painful man.

 

Just read that little bit there for goodness sake!

 

That is why he was getting the best out of the likes of Longstaff and developing him into a top player, and now he has fallen to pieces.

 

It's also why someone like Almiron wasn't playing so haphazardly and pelting forward like a maniac headless chicken all the time.

 

He was constantly emphasising the final details and really getting guys to think about the game and the decisions they were making out there on the pitch.

 

It's just so unfair.

[mrmojorisin75]

every little anecdote is like a kick in the balls and a knife to the heart at the same time

[Bimpy474]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

[samptime29]

Yeah, this is painful like. 

[Shearergol]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

 

Prefect usage

[Rafalove]

Would be great if RAfa could coach me for 5-a-side

[St1pe]

Echoing everyone else on this but reading Rondon talking about Rafa has spoiled my morning 😂

[Captain Underpants]

I miss you Rafa. 😔

[TBG]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

 

From that to "lets play"

 

 

[Disco]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

 

From that to "lets play"

 

 

 

I like to think all Steve's tactics could be learned from the presenters of daytime TV quiz shows.

[Si]

Letting this man walkaway man and then replacing him with Bruce - absolutely disgraceful

 

 

 

Rondon chats for 90 minutes and would readily stay longer. “I could sit here for four, five hours with a coffee, talking football,” he says and laughs. “I learned that from Rafa.” He has also trained himself to listen. Benitez is obsessive about the sport and meticulous in his role, always teaching, always explaining, focusing on the little details that make players better. “It’s something I love,” Rondon says, although it has taken him a while to reach this point.

 

He is increasingly expressive, animated. “I was in Miami on my holidays when Rafa first called me,” Rondon says. “I turned to my wife and whispered, ‘Oh my God, it’s Rafa Benitez!’ I said — very cool — ‘yes, hello Rafa, hi, how are you?’ He told me he’d tried to buy me for Newcastle but instead they were going to get me on loan. I wasn’t worried; I just wanted to go. ‘Don’t worry Rafa, I’ll be there.’ I put the phone down. And then I said to my wife, ‘ARGHHH! RAFA BENITEZ!’

 

“I remember our first meeting, the day I passed my medical and signed. I was waiting for the paperwork to go through. He talked to me for 45 minutes! I was in his office and he drew a horizontal line on a whiteboard and then a picture of a goal.

 

‘What’s that?’ he asked me. ‘Er … A pitch?’ I said. ‘No’, he said, ‘you can go back to West Brom. This is a target. A target. Are you a striker?’ ‘Yes, I’m a striker,’ I said. ‘Well, where should you shoot?’ ‘Umm. Wherever the keeper can’t reach it?’ I asked. ‘No. Where? Which side?’

 

“So on the drawing he divided the goal into six squares. He told me the maximum percentage for goals is in the bottom left and bottom right corners. ‘If you shoot there and miss high you still might score’, he said. ‘I know strikers want to score goals with quality and style, but shoot here and you’ll score. Pass the ball into the net. Pass, pass!’ It went on for a long time, but it was really good. I’m still learning from him.”

 

 

From that to "lets play"

 

 

 

I like to think all Steve's tactics could be learned from the presenters of daytime TV quiz shows.

One from the top and ten from the bottom please Rachel.

[Yorkie]

You can go back to West Brom.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[TBG]

You've got Rafa doing that, and then you've got Steve "I'm not a puppet" Bruce's first and only involvement in the club's record transfer, being him walking in during Joelinton's interview for the club website. 

[Chicane]

I remember thinking (and saying, so this isn't just hindsight) when Murphy was signed that it seemed a bit of a frustration signing that was meant to be one for the future, but because at the time we had missed out on so many targets he just sorta became a "main" signing.

[rgk_lfc]

Torres on Rafa:

 

“The vast majority of footballers stop learning once they become professionals,” he states. “And that is their big mistake. I’ve been lucky enough to have coach like Rafa Benítez who tries to make you better every single day. There’s no doubt I’ve improved a lot.”

 

Torres is the embodiment of practice makes perfect; if the devil is the details so too are the goals. “Things that you would never even have thought about, Rafa does,” he says. “Things that you thought weren’t important are. You might think ‘that’s ridiculous’ but the thing is the proof is there in front of you. You try it and you see that it’s true. It really works.

 

“When I met Rafa I realised maybe for the first time just how important a coach is. He’s not just someone who sticks 11 people on the pitch and chooses a system. He has to get the very best out of every player and every player is different. Some players have to be pushed and piqued, others have to be looked after,” he says. “When I’ve scored two goals or three goals, he tells me I’ve played badly, that I didn’t help out at the back…”

 

The question is inevitable: isn’t that tiresome? Plenty of players have been burnt by Benítez. “It depends,” Torres replies. “You can think, ‘forget it’ or you can think, ‘next time I’m going to work twice as hard, I’m going to do the things he tells me to do and then we’ll see what he says’.” There is a grin. “But if you do that he still has things to say! ‘In that corner, you let your man go and he had a shot…’ He always demands more.  Maybe there are players who get sunk by that but personally it helps me.”

 

Nor is it all about motivation; in fact, says Torres, it is more about method. “People say things like: ‘he’s got to improve his shooting’ but that doesn’t mean anything. You have to look deeper than that; you have to focus on how you get into the position to shoot, your arrival point, the position of your body. To say ‘he’s got to shoot better’ is banal, so general as to be meaningless. How do you find the space? How do you get into that position? How do you finish? In what way?

 

“Rafa talks to me a lot about the position of my body. If you’re turned fractionally more to the right or left you might get a millisecond’s advantage; if when you receive the ball you shift you weight you can get away easier. The way you position yourself against the centre-backs, focus on their position and judge their movements as well as your own is vital. One of the most important things I’ve learnt with Rafa is how to play closer to the opposition’s penalty area – how to get in behind the defenders as a solo striker. I don’t have to come back and look for the ball; I fix my position by the centre-backs more than by the ball or the build up.

 

“Rafa always analyses the centre backs I’m facing and the goalkeeping coach tells me about the goalkeepers. In a game it’s a matter of tenths of a second and that information can help. You might be told: ‘The goalkeeper always dives one way and if you’re patient you can wait and go round him the other side, the goalkeeper comes out a long way and you can chip him…’ Those small details really helped, especially in the first year when I didn’t know the players, whether centre-back was quick or slow, whether he comes across to the wings to cover and leaves space behind or whether he sticks.”

 

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/fernando-torres-how-rafa-made-me-great

 

 

[Kanji]

[TBG]

"Lets play"

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Such a class act

 

Given that 99% of pundits don’t understand the stuff Torres is talking about there, it’s no surprise people like Bruce get an easy ride.