It is not idiotic or disloyal to question a manager in his 4th season who has been 11 points or more off top of the table every Christmas during his tenure my friend so unless you're related to Benitez you're post lacks objectivity. Liverpool are 18 years without a league title; they will be another 18 years if they give every manager 5 years to prove he CAN'T win the league. I like Benitez, but I love Liverpool FC. Therefore we need to be professional when considering managers and forget emotional ties. Do up Liverpool fans want to win the Premier League or are we content competing for Cup? Because under Souness, Evans, Houllier and Benitez in 18 years we have actually contested the league title twice. For ONE WEEK in 4 seasons under Benitez we have been top of the table. The next week at Portsmouth he dropped our two best players and we drew.
So let us consider some facts;
Rafael Benitez should be relieved of his job this June - ONLY if the the club believe they are replacing him with a superior manager. There is no such canditate in British football. Therefore you look to Jose Mourinho or Marcello Lippi. Both are held in as high esteem as Benitez across world football. Indeed, Marcello Lippi is the best of the three. But would Lippi settle into the Premiership or would it take him a few years? Has he the hunger for such a big job aged 60 having won the World Cup etc.. We cannot know the answers unless he got the job. But is he as good as Rafael Benitez? Definitely he is.
Mourinho is a controversial figure many Pool fans don't like as a man. However all that matters is whether he could bring us closer to the league title than Benitez. Personally, I am certain he would. Mourinho would not allow his team to fall so far behind by xmas. Benitez hasn't had the money of Utd or Chelsea, but there is no excuse not to beat Reading or Birmingham or Wigan home and away every season when you have players like Torres and Gerrard. Benitez complicates games which are striaghtforward. We have better players than these teams so we play our usual game and beat them easy. Save the tactical stuff for the Champions League.
But Benitez often changed our team and formation against the Premierships trash teams, like he did at Reading and against Wigan, and the result is he gets egg on his face and Liverpool gets left behind in the league table. It has happened too often.
Arsene Wenger has been a top manager at Arsenal. He has won the Premier League 3 times. However, if he went to Italy and took charge of Inter or Juventus, does the fact he won the Premiership GUARANTEE he will win Serie A? If he was 4 YEARS at Juve or Inter and had only been top of Serie A for ONE WEEK in those 4 years is there any certainty he could win the league with more time just because he won in England? No there is not.
And the same applies to Benitez. There is no certainty he is capable of winning the Premier League just because he won in Spain or can win in European footballl. He is a good manager, there is no doubt. But he has not set the Premier League alight with his football or his results. If Liverpool fans are desperate for the league title then we cannot keep a manager who has been 11 points or more behind top spot by Christmas in each of his four seasons in charge. The omens are he cannot win the Premier League with his tactics and inability to consistently beat the league's poor sides. He drops stupid points too often for no reason but his own failings.
Bring in Lippi or Mourinho in June. If they cannot be employed, give Benitex one final season. Incidentally, as regards the articles of Paul Tomkins = he has a good eye for football no question. But anyone who never criticises ANYTHING the manager does but seeks to excuse it is not an objective fan worth listening to. There are two sides to every manager. Tomkins never writes anything critical of Benitez no matter how bad we might play. Therefore he is biased towards the manager like the journalists Houllier had during his reign.
« Last Edit: Jan 04, 2008 09:32:32 am by Poolgiants »
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