Is Rafa Benitez's footballing philosophy causing a problem at Liverpool?

He is an over rated stubborn fat turd like The french idiot Houllier. This is the 9th consecutive season i have had to sit an watch garbage football at liverpool. i could go on all day about how poor a manager he is but secretly you all know that. Liverpool fans are too scared to say what they are thinking. All are after the title of Liverpools greatest fan. he is kept in a job by people in rose tinted glasses. people who refuse to criticise. people who live for 2005 and THAT final. So what, get over it, we won a cup 2 an a half years ago. like the houllier thing and Roy Evans, fatty has done as much as he can now and it's time to stop embarrassing the club and himself and leave. woeful performances against the rubbish of the league are not acceptable. he has never performed against the big 3 in the league either and we cant live for a good CL run every season. I want the league, not another lucky cup run of 2005 and last season. i know this comment will recieve damnation from the rose tinted brigade, but i'

An interesting but largely inconclusive analysis. There isn't much wrong at all. We are getting there....the problem is a lack of patience and some 'over-analysis' by people like you. Because really nothing is wrong except that the players are trying too hard and not relaxed in their play. This maybe because of the intensive instructions given on tactics....but more careful and accurate shooting and some confidence is all this squad needs.Support that they are getting there from the fans would also help. Ken Charmer

I totally agree with this article as I grew up watching the freeflowing football we played in the 80s. We have the players to play good football give the fans some fantasy football, some panache skill and bravado. He won't listen or adhere to the LIVERPOOL TRADITION OF GOOD FOOTBALL. He is like Houllier in the fact he won t admit when he is wrong, Kuyt is one of the worst strikers I have ever seen playing as a professional, he absolutely cannot use his left peg which in my books is unacceptable for an international footballer. The chances he missed against Blackburn were horrific to watch I know in all honesty I would have put them away myself. He is kept becasue of his workrate not his skill or ability to turn a game and that sums up rafas football politique.

It's hardly news Rafa's a dyed in the wool tactician with a quite instrumental approach to the players as well as the game. Having said that I think the article is quite good in that it seems to give a fairly good picture on Rafa's view of the game. For it must be said, we are no closer to challenge for the title under Rafa than we ever were under GH (and the claim we challenged in 2001/02 is just ridiculous, the only reason we finished 2nd was Arsenal beat ManU at OT on the 2nd last day of the season). During the last 6 weeks I have for the first time come to doubt whether Rafa's the man to bring us no.19. Compared to the topteams we look very disjointed and without a clear idea on how to win games. I also think this bemoaning of missed chances start to wear a tad thin to be brutally honest. I've heard it for three years now and fair enough you may get lucky in a single game but hardly over the course of 3 seasons. I also think some of Rafa's comments are a tad worrying like "we're progressing" after

Hi Ken, thanks for writing. Any conclusions I draw would attract the aforementioned scorn. I tried to use seasoned football professional views, to make this as even-handed as possible. I'll be writing more pieces on my personal views soon enough, don't you worry. This season is giving us plenty to fixate, and be divided, on.

so according to the all knowing </sarcasm> Jorge Valdano, you can only be a great manager if you made it as a player.....im sure wenger, fergie, paisley, shankley, busby, jock stein would argue that fact.

I AM SO ANGRY ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAFA WHY DON'T THEY FIRED HIM.I WAMT MOURINHO TO TAKE THE CLUB.

kuyt,voronin should go but not crouch.penant,babel,risie,momo pls go with them!!!!!

[quote]so according to the all knowing &lt;/sarcasm&gt; Jorge Valdano, you can only be a great manager if you made it as a player.....im sure wenger, fergie, paisley, shankley, busby, jock stein would argue that fact.[/quote] Not at all, Ossie Ardiles- great player, not so sterling manager. Your interpretation is flawed. Valdano makes no reference to the prerequisites for being a great manager, and those guys you mentioned certainly qualify as greats. His key argument is that Benitez and Mourinho are taking football in a direction where skill is being bred out of players in favour of programmed athleticism. In the time of the aforementioned greats, when trainig regimes weren't statictically analysed, it was still skill and natural talent of the likes of Best, Robson, Dalglish and predatory instincts, like Rush's, which were relied on to beat players and teams. Why not write a counter-argument to this, and find someone who backs it up? I' sure there will be somebody who's come out against Valdano.

A nice article.

I agree that Rafa is a results man and not a performance man but listen; as a manager, if you want to keep your job, who do you satisfy - the board (via good results) or the fans (via good performances)? I think we all know the answer to that. And with regards to Kujt, he needs to be dropped like Crouch has been then he will come back fresher and will bang some in - granted his left peg is useless, but he can still do a job but seems to think that runnign around ALL game warrants a place in the team; this may be the case at an Aston Villa or a Bolton, but not at Liverpool...