[quote author=Rosco link=topic=37201.msg989203#msg989203 date=1258311095]
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[quote author=Red Mullet link=topic=37201.msg989185#msg989185 date=1258309845]
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=37201.msg989179#msg989179 date=1258309734]
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[quote author=SaintGeorge67 link=topic=37201.msg989158#msg989158 date=1258309185]
We'd have won the league last year too if we had Ferenc Puskas instead of Robbie Keane
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We'd have won it had we signed Arshavin instead of Keane.
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Or Zidane
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No be serious for a second.
We didn't win the league because our manager made numerous bad decisions in the transfer market.
He did the same again this summer.
We're going rapidly backwards under Rafa at the moment and I do get the impression his time is finally coming to a close. It was the same with Houllier when he was on the way out, lots would defend him right up until the last minute but it was clear for quite a while that he was finished as Liverpool manager.
I fully expect the arguments in favour of Benitez to get more demented as the season goes on.
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The arguments against Benitez 'are' already demented.
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Care to expand on that ?
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Well lets see.
Rafa has bought badly - Torres, Alonso, Johnson, Mascherano, Aqualina, Yossi Agger. These players suggest he hasn't. Of course there are some players that are bad transfers but name a manager that hasn't bought badly?
Rafa has made decisions on the pitch - I can think of plenty of games when he's made great decisions on the pitch. Beating RM and then beating Man Utd, Istanbul, Juventas, Barca. Once again we can all pick games where's made decisions and once again name a manager that hasn't made a bad decision?
Rafa hasn't won us the league - How long did it take SAF? Has Rafa had a magnitude in quantity of money to achieve like Mourinho? Last season was close, still not good enough but close. We had the most attacking team, scored the most goals and played some of the best football any of us have seen in a recent Liverpool team.
For every demented argument for Rafa there is already demented argument against.
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So out of the 60+ players Rafa has signed you can list 6 that are good. And one of them hasn't yet started a game for us. That's hardly a convincing argument. I posted a while back regarding transfers and showed how we had spent 50m in the past two years and gotten no return for it. Rafa is awful at managing his resources.
Johnson - good player, but we're a worse team this season partly because of introduction. So you'd have to question how good a signing it was, particularly considering how promising Martin Kelly looked on his debut. It could be easily argued that hanging onto Arbeloa for one more year (and letting him go for free), while blooding Kelly for the RB role would have been better for the team. Particularly considering we'd have had money left over to get another attacking player.
You don't actually have an argument in favour of Rafa when you examine it closely. You're basically saying that because other managers have made mistakes Rafa should be excused all of his and we should carry on with him at the helm.
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Those 6 are just examples, very much like your 60+ players he's signed: Kuyt is another example. There are bad and good in all 60+ of them.
I do have arguments in favour and against Rafa, and I bet any of us can find them unless you deliberately choose to ignore them. Here's a few examples :- The trophies he's won with Liverpool and Valencia, the standard of how we're playing (and I'm talking about the end of last season) compared to when he first joined. The consistent entry into the CL rather than hoping to get into it. The challenge of the PL and the justifiable hope of winning it (once again coming 2nd last season). His 'bad man-management' is so exaggerated by the press and the posters. Let's face it, how do we actually know what happens inside Melwood or on the training ground? For every disgruntled player, there are loads saying he's transformed them into better players - eg Torres, Gerrard, N'Gog etc.
Rafa has faults, makes mistakes but it's never just his that causes the team to lose or play badly.
