I don't see what is there to debate about. Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Javier Mascherano, Alberto Aquilani, Pepe Reina and such are overall far superior to Milan Baros, Djimi Traore, Salif Diao, Harry Kewell, Jerzy Dudek and such. Some were better in the first squad and some are better in the second.
The problem with those two squads left by both managers is, they are missing some great signings made by Rafa. Peter Crouch, Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa are all good players who played for the club and contributed at one point in their Liverpool career.
Fair enough that Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise, Didi Hamann and Steve Finnan were good players whom I rate very highly but they were then 31, 24, 31 and 28 years old and would have been sold (except Riise probably, really wanted to keep him) at one point by any manager. We found it difficult to replace Sami but Kyrgiakos looks like the mini-replacement for him - usually wins the aerial duels and have scored twice this season already. Fabio Aurelio is good, injury-prone but good and Dossena and Konchesky aren't too convincing. Javier Mascherano is one of the best in his position. Steve Finnan was consistent at the back and also decent going forward. Glen Johnson is awesome going forward, but not so much at the back.
We did well under Houlier. About 7 trophies? FA Cup, two League Cups, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Community Shield and UEFA Nitro Cup but we were hardly in the Champions League. Fair enough, he groomed Stevie and Carra, gave them their debuts and make them what they are today. Also brought in the above mentioned players.
Then came Rafa. We were always in the Champions League. In his 6 seasons in charge, we reached the final (2005), first round (2006), final (2007), semi-final (2008), quarter-final (2009) but failed to qualify for knock out (2010). Aren't/weren't we the top team in Europe? In a time shorter than Houllier, Rafa managed he won 4 trophies in his FIRST three seasons - Champions League (2005), FA Cup (2006), UEFA Super Cup (2005) and Community Shield (2007). Less trophies but also made it to another Champions League Final (2007), League Cup Final (2005) and Club World Cup Championship (2005). He didn't bring out Gerrard and Carra but he brought the best out of them. He turned Stevie from a less than 10 goal-a-season midfielder to a one who averages 17 goals a season in Rafa's time here. Rafa also brought world class players to the team - Reina, Torres and Alonso.
IMO, Houllier worked with a weaker squad and managed to win us silverware. Rafa inherited that weak squad, brought in good players and also won silverware. Our new man, Roy Hodgson, inherited a squad stronger than the one Rafa inherited from Houllier but it's up to the manager to get the results and bring in the silverware - something which I don't see Roy being able to do. Pretty evident that Rafa Benitez has so far fail to live up to the expectations left at Inter Milan after Mourinho brought them the treble or the fact that despite missing 35 matches from 114 possible league apperances, Torres has a wonderful goal-scoring record but right now, he only has 5 league goals in like 15 league matches. 15/16 suggests he has played in all but one!
It's up to the managers to get the best out of the squad. It may be the majority of Houllier's players who won the Champions League but it was Rafa's tactical genius who made it happen. Funnily enough, it was his signings that play parts in our trophy wins - Garcia, Alonso and Reina (2006 FA Cup). Saying that Roy's failing to get results and performances because the majority are Rafa's players is just stupid. Oh yeah, it wasn't Rafa who signed Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky.
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