Rafael Benitez
A master of the tactical game and of winning pressure one-off games, Rafael Benitez has the pedigree to be a great manager. Made his name with Valencia before moving to England to manage Liverpool and has led them to 2 Champions League finals in 3 years. That’s more than Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and SAF, so that’s saying a lot.
Valencia won La Liga under him, but Liverpool have been off the pace in the league so far as Rafa in my opinion still has to get his tactics in line with the demands of the Premiership.
Liverpool’s Big Step Four-ward
18, 30, 37, 9, 21, 11. No, these aren’t the winning numbers for tonight’s National Lottery — they’re actually the gap between Liverpool and the winner of the league dating back to the 2002-03 campaign. It’s sobering to realise that whilst Liverpool are a world class club, they’ve never been closer than nine points in…
Learning from history: How Benitez must avoid the mistakes made by Houllier
My Grandad always used to say “The Runners Up in anything are just the first losers”. It is a notion that is unlikely to endear himself to the man who he refers to consistently as “Bennertez”, as Rafa Benitez wakes up today contemplating being the “first loser” of this season’s Premier League. But, clichés and…
Gerrard benefits from Benitez’s tactical eye
Steven Gerrard rarely likes watching games from the sidelines, but he was all smiles last night as he watched a Liverpool legends side featuring some of his boyhood heroes–Kenny Dalglish included–defeat an all-stars team managed by the unlikely duo of Ricky Tomlinson and Jamie Carragher, in the Hillsborough/Marina Dalglish Memorial Match at Anfield. Gerrard was…
Manchester United on the brink after Tevez adds to his CV
For an hour the dreamers had begun to dream. Households across Merseyside & Greater Manchester had seen its occupants edge ever closer to the television, whilst inside the JJB the travelling contingent of Manchester United supporters waited. And waited. They knew it would come, it always does. But with Wigan Athletic in stubborn mood, and…
Soccerlens Podcast – El Casico, Chelsea’s anti-football and all about La Liga
On episode nine of the Soccerlens Podcast, Stephen Darwin is joined by FourFourTwo’s man in Madrid, Tim Stannard, to talk about Spanish football and La Liga. The show will be looking specifically at Valencia and their financial woes, Tim rips into Chelsea and their negative tactics at the Nou Camp and of course there’s just the small…
The League may have gone for Liverpool, but what a way for it to go!
Football really is a fickle mistress isn’t it? Just when you think that the game has thrown up just about every conceivable high, every unimaginable low, and plenty in-between, it goes and pulls a fresh rabbit from the hat and leaves you wondering: a) why the hell you bother with the thing, and b) when…
Naught Schoolboys Ferguson and Benitez told off by Headmaster
Like naughty schoolboys sent to the headmaster’s office Sir Alex and Rafa have been given detention. The head of the League Manager’s Association, Richard Bevan, has told the warring bosses that enough is enough and they both need to quit their bickering. In the last few months the United and Liverpool managers have been firing…
Has Benitez ruined Ryan Babel?
Holland coach Marco Van Basten recently criticised Rafael Benitez’s handling of Ryan Babel, noting that the player had taken a step backward since his arrival at Anfield. A harsh assessment? Not if you look at the facts; and having examined the facts, Benitez’s truly appalling treatment of the player is depressingly clear. Van Basten argued:…
Did Rafa’s mind games put Liverpool in a sticky situation?
“Gerrard wants to play,” said Benítez, “We have to train and talk with him, but he’s had the problem before and was playing. We need people who are 100% fit now, so it would be a calculated risk, but he is a key player for us. On Saturday, we knew we could use him if…
Football’s Laurel and Hardy team up for ridiculous public rant at Rafa Benitez
Sir Alex Ferguson launched a scathing diatribe against Rafael Benitez yesterday, citing his “deplorably arrogant, twitching goatee” as an example of his “utter contempt for the aesthetic sensibilities of the League Manager’s Association (LMA)”. According to Fergie, Rafa’s “dubiously manicured facial accouterment” epitomises his appalling disrespect for “struggling clean-shaven managers like Gareth Southgate, who have…
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