Is Rafa Benitez Underrated?

Liverpool fans are delusional.

Sepi wrote:Rafa rests Torres ahead of crucial European Tie --> Media: "Fat Spanish Waiter and his stupid rotation strategy strike again"

Ferguson doesn't play the same team in the league for an entire season --> Media: "Sir Alex demonstrates his superb squad management skills yet again"

Rafa's Liverpool go on a 10 game winning streak, conceding 3 in process, most 1-0 wins --> Media: "Why are Liverpool so defensive and cautious?"

Fergie's United don't concede a goal in 10 games and win all of them 1-0 --> Media: "Grinding out results, even if you are not at top of your game. That's a champion's trait and Sir Alex has done it again"

Rafa's Liverpool have 6 Spanish representatives in Spain's Confed. Cup 2009 squad. --> Media: "Benitez has destroyed Liverpool's soul, Spanish players are too homesick and lightweight for here". All Liverpool need is an arm around the shoulder manager like Roy Hodgson, who can bring Liverpool's traditions back to the club and give them more Englishness. Maybe then, they'd have a chance of winning at places like Stoke.



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Arshavin: "Media hated Benitez. They wanted to kill him. In their eyes, he couldn't do anything right for Liverpool, no matter if they won, drew, or lost a game"

IMO a place like PSG will be a good place to judge him.

Sepi wrote:

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:Quite under rated. I didn't blame him for Liverpool's bad times before he left and I still don't.

What about Inter?

And Inter are doing amazingly with him gone...eh. A team absolutely spent, last season, loss of depth up front (Milito gone), so many injuries, and players who had lost their hunger. He was right from day one that team needs fresh faces, and I am sure Inter fans will admit it too.

That's the Mourinho syndrome. Rafa, being Mou's biggest enemy, was an absolute idiot for taking that job, knowing players hated him from day one. I can't wait to read the man's autobiography when he speaks of all the under-the-scene stuff he had to deal with.

I don't think you can put Rafa's bad performances at Inter down to post-Mourinho syndrome.

If Mourinho made the players hate Rafa, then how do you explain that the man who replaced Rafa, Leonardo (a former Milan player, transfer scout and coach), a man who would have surely be greatly resented by many inter players, performed far better than Rafa?

I'm definitely not saying that Leonardo is a better coach than Rafa, but I don't think Rafa is WC anymore, if he ever was.

tacticly he is master , man manager ? he sucks :/

Let's not forget he's the only one who has been able to get WC performances from Fernando Torres.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:Let's not forget he's the only one who has been able to get WC performances from Fernando Torres.

:lol!:

overrated.

Still remember the only reason why Xabi Alonso is in madrid now is of Benitez foolishness. lack of man management skills and bad transfer handling (though that be outta benitez hands and not his fault).

is Gareth Barry > Xabi Alonso yet?

Sepi wrote:Fergie's United don't concede a goal in 10 games and win all of them 1-0 --> Media: "Grinding out results, even if you are not at top of your game. That's a champion's trait and Sir Alex has done it again"

I agree with this one.


I think he's underated by the media and fans. Pretty sure any observant person who knows anything about footy should be able to to see his real potential.

He's definitely underrated on this forum, constantly shown disrespect he is not owed.

I've gotta say he's underrated. Wining the Champions League for a coach IMO is the hardest competition to win.

The tactical challenges of playing against teams from different countries with different styles and rotating players is very difficult and there are a lots of coach's and players for that matter who can dominate leagues but never win a CL.

Not to mention winning La Liga with Madrid and Barcelona in the league is damn near impossible and he did it twice!!!

The fact that he doesn't have a job right now really makes you wonder what kind of guy he is behind the scenes.

Great manager. unfortunatley because he isn't British or English he was villifed. Didnt have the necessary funds to do what needed to be done. The man was a great tactician. Can't stand the way he was treated tbh.

Were Mou & Wenger villified?

It's because he came from La Liga, IMO.

Sepi wrote:Rafa rests Torres ahead of crucial European Tie --> Media: "Fat Spanish Waiter and his stupid rotation strategy strike again"

Ferguson doesn't play the same team in the league for an entire season --> Media: "Sir Alex demonstrates his superb squad management skills yet again"

Rafa's Liverpool go on a 10 game winning streak, conceding 3 in process, most 1-0 wins --> Media: "Why are Liverpool so defensive and cautious?"

Fergie's United don't concede a goal in 10 games and win all of them 1-0 --> Media: "Grinding out results, even if you are not at top of your game. That's a champion's trait and Sir Alex has done it again"

Rafa's Liverpool have 6 Spanish representatives in Spain's Confed. Cup 2009 squad. --> Media: "Benitez has destroyed Liverpool's soul, Spanish players are too homesick and lightweight for here". All Liverpool need is an arm around the shoulder manager like Roy Hodgson, who can bring Liverpool's traditions back to the club and give them more Englishness. Maybe then, they'd have a chance of winning at places like Stoke.



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Arshavin: "Media hated Benitez. They wanted to kill him. In their eyes, he couldn't do anything right for Liverpool, no matter if they won, drew, or lost a game"

100% true, although in all fairness the same could be said if you compared the depiction in the media of ay PL manager to SAF, in pommy media that man is untouchable

[mention][/mention] wrote:overrated.

Still remember the only reason why Xabi Alonso is in madrid now is of Benitez foolishness. lack of man management skills and bad transfer handling (though that be outta benitez hands and not his fault).

is Gareth Barry > Xabi Alonso yet?

That much is correct at least. If not for Benitez Alonso would never have put in the performances he did in the 08/09 season and would never even have been on Madrid's radar.

RedOranje wrote:

[mention][/mention] wrote:overrated.

Still remember the only reason why Xabi Alonso is in madrid now is of Benitez foolishness. lack of man management skills and bad transfer handling (though that be outta benitez hands and not his fault).

is Gareth Barry > Xabi Alonso yet?

That much is correct at least. If not for Benitez Alonso would never have put in the performances he did in the 08/09 season and would never even have been on Madrid's radar.

I have to disagree here, our coach back then wanted to sign Alonso when he was playing for Sociedad and tearing the league up, but Perez was deep into the Galacticos bs

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:I have to disagree here, our coach back then wanted to sign Alonso when he was playing for Sociedad and tearing the league up, but Perez was deep into the Galacticos bs

He was going to go to Juventus. If RM was interested, he would of went there straight away. He was clearly out of form in 2006/7 though, so that's probably why RM didn't go for him. Basically doing as good as a job as Charlie Adam playing as a DM. :\

First rate coach, probably not first rate manager.

ynwa wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:I have to disagree here, our coach back then wanted to sign Alonso when he was playing for Sociedad and tearing the league up, but Perez was deep into the Galacticos bs

He was going to go to Juventus. If RM was interested, he would of went there straight away. He was clearly out of form in 2006/7 though, so that's probably why RM didn't go for him. Basically doing as good as a job as Charlie Adam playing as a DM. :\

No, our manager wanted us to sign him, but we didnt do it because we went for Beckham if my timeline is correct. It's like the time when our coach wanted to sign Alves but Perez was too retarded to do it

Oh, my mistake. I was talking about the 2006/7 window when we wanted to sell him for underperforming. He then lifted his form and was sold to you guys in 09/10 (which f*cked up our system ).

I'm pretty sure we were in for Alonso when he was still at La Real. He declined though saying he wanted to try playing outside Spain.

As for Rafa I think he's rated just fine. First rate at tactics but he has his faults like all managers.

Brilliant tactician, bad man manager

Sepi wrote:

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:Quite under rated. I didn't blame him for Liverpool's bad times before he left and I still don't.

What about Inter?

And Inter are doing amazingly with him gone...eh. A team absolutely spent, last season, loss of depth up front (Milito gone), so many injuries, and players who had lost their hunger. He was right from day one that team needs fresh faces, and I am sure Inter fans will admit it too.

That's the Mourinho syndrome. Rafa, being Mou's biggest enemy, was an absolute idiot for taking that job, knowing players hated him from day one. I can't wait to read the man's autobiography when he speaks of all the under-the-scene stuff he had to deal with.

Rafa made some big mistakes from the get-go. His ego and his fued with Mourinho clouded his judgment.
One of the first things he did was take down a picture of the team with the CL trophey in the locker room. Also, he over-worked the veterans with his intensive training regime which possibly played a part in all the injuries. With these changes he lost support of the players (all verterans who have played on several different clubs with several different coaches)

If he didn't lose support in the locker room, he should of stayed as coach.

The best game (at least 70 minutes of it) Inter played in the last several years was when they dismantled Tottenham in Milan. It was 4-0 at halftime and could have been 6 or 7 - 0. At this moment I had great expectations for Benetiz.

But he lost the locker-room by trying to make too many changes too fast and th rest is history.


I'll agree that he was doomed from the beginning though. This was Moratti's fault.

Balague says that Chelsea is evaluating whether it would be good for them to sign him.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Balague says that Chelsea is evaluating whether it would be good for them to sign him.

Benitez is a bad man manger, but I don't see how it could get any worse than it is. Imo the Chelsea players are not getting along with AVB. Benitez is a better tactician with more PL experience. Short term it would be a better choice to get Benitez. Abramovic is not very patient too, I keep hearing, but AVB is long term. I don't see him staying for very long.

Rafa deserves better than that circus.

hopefully, if an approach is made, he'd turn it down.