[quote author=The_Positive_One link=topic=40155.msg1101730#msg1101730 date=1273403302]
So when they chant his name or send an email, they are not displaying blind devotion. They are acknowledging the complications of managing a club that has no future until things change and recognising that Benitez has, imperfectly, managed until this season somehow to keep Liverpool competitive.[/quote]
So we should somehow be thankful that we've managed to stay competitive?
I don't fucking think so. This entire paragraph is the biggest load of condescending fucking shite I've had the misfortune to read. If they want to show their support in this fashion, then that's up to them, but to portray it as anything less than desperate, blind faith is utter tosh. Rafa's tenure here has become questionable at the very least, and way past its sell by date for many people - rightly so in my opinion. But to try and make out like Rafa has somehow endured these trials and tribulations and should be lauded for 'keeping us competitive' when he's been sanctioned to buy one of the best forwards in the world, one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, and inherited Stevie G and Carra is just laughable really. 'Competitive' is a fucking minimum requirement and whatever shit has gone on behind the scenes does not excuse the pitiful performances, bizarre decisions and same stupid mistakes again and again that we've seen too many times.
It's as 'complicated' as this: you play your best team all the time and play to win. Regardless of all of the off-field shenanigans, which I accept will have some detrimental effect on things, there are some things which cannot be justified or excused by pointing the finger at the owners. Picking the team, picking the tactics, and forgetting to buy any sort of viable back-up for crucial positions fall under that umbrella.
Supporting Rafa through thick and thin, whatever the results and whatever the consequences is blind devotion, whatever way you want to paint it. You only support the manager as long as it's not to the detriment of the club, and I think that line's been crossed. All this superfan nonsense that casts Rafa in the role of suffering martyr to the cause is just a load of bollocks - he's got just as much to answer for as the owners - not more, but not less either - and perpetrating this myth of infallibility or at least reduced responsibility is just trying to shift the blame onto the convenient scapegoat of the owners and the way the club has been run as a whole.
I'm sorry, but it just doesn't wash.
They were wrong about everything: wrong about his transfer record, wrong about rotation, wrong about how often he rested Torres.
Is that so?
Well then where's the fucking proof?
Oh, that's right, I'm sorry, we made the Top 4 every season, woopdefuckingdoo.
Oh, except this season that is.
They would have been wrong if we'd actually gone on and fucking won the league, except we didn't - all we can point to is 'strong finishes', his transfer record doesn't stand up to scrutiny and Torres gets injured anyway, so . . .
Just as his success masked the dysfunction of the regime he was employed by, his failures have hidden them too. Benitez took on Hicks and Gillett and paid the price: not the loss of his job but the loss of his vision of what the team should be. Like all obsessives, he is always at risk of losing touch with reality.
Errr . . . masked the dysfunction of the regime? What, the soap opera that's been played out in the press on a weekly basis? The one that's been plastered across the back pages again and again in a brutal fashion and that he's played a massive part in, taking regular snipes at the owners, the staff and so on?
Yeah right, the only dysfunction his success has masked has been his own, and from the outset his vision of what the team should be has been seemingly as mystifying to him as it has been to us, as we've gone through player after player that either doesn't fit in with the style of play or his style of management. How often has he been accused of not knowing what his best team is - and lazy unimaginative punditry though it may have been, that doesn't mean it's not been true. The only time it really seemed to settle in five years was last season, and even then there were still questions to be asked as he bought Robbie Keane for a position that Steven Gerrard was already excelling at.
Has he ever
had a touch on reality? Too many times the blindingly obvious has seemingly sailed past unnoticed and unheeded as he sticks to his rigidly imposed regime of "I'm right, the world can fuck off" - his stubbornness can not be said to be one of his better qualities, and I'm seriously doubtful that it's been a key to his success - if anything it's been symbolic of his failures.
This whole article just fucks me off tbh. Balanced my arse - it pays lip service to the incontrovertible flaws of his reign and tries to pass the buck on the rest of them. The owners have fucked us up, that is not in doubt, but this portrayal of a flawed genius stifled by circumstances is as pathetic as it is inaccurate.
Rafa should not have to shoulder all of the blame, and there have been times where 'heroics' is probably as apt a word as any, but trying to make out the last 5 years have been some kind of Golden Age is insulting, no matter how bad it's gonna get
