When asked by Richard Keys after Liverpool’s victory against Aston Villa about whether Reds manager Roy Hodgson was left a mess by previous boss Rafa Benitez, Andy Gray responded:
“I think so, the squad he inherited was better than the one he left, and I’m sure Gerard Houllier would back me up on that.”
Although I am reluctant to go over old ground about this as the focus should be very much on the future, there has been a mantra from many footballing pundits, including Gray, that Liverpool needs a massive rebuilding job. I would agree to an extent that after having one disastrous season where we finished seventh, a certain amount of player re-organisation is required, but pundits do seem to have short memories. For me, saying that Rafa left a worst squad than Houllier is very wide of the mark. Ironically Gray went on to praise Pepe Reina and David Ngog for their performances against Aston Villa, despite the fact they were both Rafa buys.
You only have to look at the squad that Rafa inherited to see Gray’s comments are inaccurate. Djimi Traore? Bruno Cheyrou? Salif Diao? El-Hadji Diouf? Igor Biscan? Are any of these players better than the likes of Javier Mascherano, Alberto Aquilani, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson and Daniel Agger that Rafa left Roy? Remember the majority of the squad had only two years previously finished second on 86 points. Along with top class players such as Reina, Mascherano, Gerrard and Torres, there were able bodies around them such as Johnson, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Agger and now Lucas. So where are Gray’s comments coming from?
Certainly there can be an argument made that Rafa left a weak squad in terms of depth. It is clear that if Liverpool ever want to compete for the title again, the size of the squad in terms of quality must increase to be able to compete with the teams at the top of the table. On Roy Hodgson’s arrival at the club in the summer, he was concerned by the lack of quality in the squad in regards to depth but a few months down the line, although he feels light on numbers, he feels he can trust the players he has at his disposal to do the job required.
When Roy came into the job last summer, like many others, he believed he was coming into a squad bereft of quality. After spending time with the players though, he has gradually seen that the player’s in the squad are better than he initially believed.
This is not to say the squad needs no improving, it certainly does. Despite the good form of Maxi Rodriguez and David Ngog, another winger and striker are needed to make the second half of the season a better one for the Red. A left back would not go amiss either but I hope Roy doesn’t go looking for a centre-half to replace the sidelined Jamie Carragher. If Daniel Agger stays fit, then he is more than capable of covering for the vice-captain.
Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com
Its live fantasy football! Play Picklive for FREE . A Free Trial for every Live4Liverpool reader here
This week it is self-proclaimed Liverpool supporter and Tennis ace Caroline Wozniacki!
————–
CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR HERE TO GET TO THE GALLERY
–
We have a VERY good squad that has been mismanaged for 18 months.
Using a 433 formation like Mourinho used to use at Chelsea, we’d have a first team almost completely full of quality, current internationals playing in their best positions;
Reina/ Johnson-Kyrgiakos-Agger-Aurelio/ Gerrard-Lucas-Meireles/ Babel-Torres-Kuyt (or Cole)
backed up by a bunch of talented youngsters and players proven to be capable of playing at least a squad role;
Jones, Gulacsi/ Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Wilson, Konchesky/ Cole, Poulsen, Pacheco, Shelvey, Maxi, / Amoo-Ngog-Jovanovich
Don’t believe the hype about our squad – we have as much talent at our disposal at the rest of the challengers (excepting City & Spurs) which is it is so annoying to see us setting/accepting such low standards!!
Agree..But mis calculated subs by Rafa and mis managed by Roy. He said our squad lack quality but Mr. Roy you are the one who lacked quality and tactics…
100% disagree Rafa left a much better squad than he inherited swap Cisse{Houllier purchased him for a whopping £14m just before leaving} for Torres, Dudek for Reina, a good but ageing Hamaan for Masherano, Dirk Kuyt for Baros,Benayoun for Kewell, its a ridiculous claim while our squad isn’t performing greta at the minute we have a much better team if the squad Houllier left were the same age as they were and competing in the current premiership which is getting stronger we would have barely made the top 10
I would also like to add that we have some very good players now who are underperforming but I feel we need 3 or 4 signings to get us challenging for the League title year in year out, we need a left winger {Ashley Young}, a striker{Andy Carroll} and maybe a defensive midfielder{Lassana Diarra} and a left back{Fabio Coentrao}, players out on loan could be sold on permanently i.e. Aquilani,Insua,Degen,Ayala and El Zhar we could also sell Poulsen,Babel,Jovanovic,Itandje,Darby and maybe the unfortunate injury prone Fabio Aurelio but the rest of our squad looks fantastic in my opinion obviously our big stars like Torres,Gerrard,Carragher and Reina get a lot of credit and rightly so but we have a lot of unsung heroes in my opinion like Kuyt,Skrtel,Lucas,Meireles and Krygiakos, we have other quality players who will be highly regarded soon like Johnson,Agger,Rodriguez and N’gog. also youngsters like Pacheco,Shelvey,Wilson and Kelly, with us finally playing with some confidence you can see how good these players can be. I believe we can get back into the Champions League this year and if we sell the players mentioned we will only need a small investment from the owners to get us fighting for Titles
Forgot to mention fantastic Joe Cole who when he gets a bit of confidence will be one of our best players
JOE COLE?????? hahahahahahaha funny guy! Fantastic Joe Cole ROFL! Joke of the year that is mate!
While I agree you are comparing Houlliers worst players to Rafa’s best. How about comparing them to the likes of Degen, El zhar, Itandje and Plessis.
all free apart from El Zhar who was cheap!!!!
Stop this please. every manager has his hits and flops. No doubt Rafa was master tactician but he was very wrong at the time of subs. I feel our squad is still very good bt lack of confidance and motivation and tactics which is a job of manager. Sadly we couldnt expect that from Roy.
Degen was for free and struggled with injuries, El Zhar was cheap, Itandje was free and Plessis was cheap and actually did quite well until Roy sold him
Liverpool had more players at the world cup than any other premiership club. Some mess.
How many players value increased under Benitez/Houllier?
How many went on to become international players with the arrival of the coach?
I love the way some people want to rewrite history, Rafa brought excellent players to LFC whilst having to cope with the yanks and some back stabbing within the board room and now the likes of Gray and others say the most bizarre of garbage about how bad the squad was left. It was not left in a bad state but a bereft state as the yanks continually stripped the assets. Now we have a mug who’s only qualification is his nationality and the pundits are singing his praises and blaming Rafa for his results.
Totally agree Frank, whilst Rafa’s final year in charge made me feel like a change was required, you have to give credit to the man for buying into the ideals of the club and fighting for liverpool fans in the face of hopeless bureaucrats, lying thieving owners and a rabidly hostile media. Remember all the press furore about Rafa the tinkerman? He had 99 games without fielding a different first team line up, then kept the teamsheet the same for the 100th just to spite the press. Those little rebellious touches in the faces of media idiots like Gray are the reason my respect for Rafa Benitez will never die. Incidentally tonight Ferguson fielded a different line up for Man U for the 15oth game running… where is all the media hype over that?
sorry the sentence in the middle there should read:
He had 99 games fielding a different first team line up
I think the cat is gradually coming out of the bag here. All the media-driven propaganda against Rafa is gradually being shown up as utter nonsense. Andy Gray must be serious deluded to say what he did and somebody must be able to challenge him as many people will believe him.
The thing that changed over the summer was we got rid of a world class manager who had ONE bad season. In exchange we got a manager used to managing lesser teams and he has turned us into underdogs and led us down a very uncertain path.
I have yet to see one newspaper have the balls to criticise Roy Hodgson’s approach with this group of largely international players. We have the team to challenging for the top four, so why has it taken us so long to even get a plus in the goal difference column.
Because, we have a cautious manager. A defensive minded manager, whose tactics are not suited to the group of players he inherited. Either Roy has to change his approach or I am worried as to what the club will come to when we sign players like Poulsen and Konchesky and get linked with Carlton Cole and Clint Dempsey. These players are NOT LFC quality and stink of mid table mediocrity.
Ok got to point out couple of facts here: rafa inherited a squad that could play several formations and finished in top 4 the year before and was then given nearly 20 million transfer kitty to improve it. roy inherited a squad that could only play one formation finished 7 and he made 10 million more than he spent! what gray said was not an insult at rafa just a statement of fact but saying that roy should be doing better with the squad he has available!
And benitez spent those 20m on josemi, nunez, garcia and alonso. The latter two costing around 16m and sold for around 34. So what do you figure the resale value is on konchesky, poulsen and brad? Ill give you meireles and cole to increase their values somewhat. But in loaning out insua and aqua he decreased their value.
3 Words that sums up Andy Gray and Rafa Benitez.
Agenda Agenda Agenda and he will not let it go.
Funny how we hear sweet FA about Roy’s outstanding away record in the british press but they STILL peddle out the old zonal marking chestnutt.
Can someone remind me off the new defensive record Pepe achieved last night please ??
Stinks
Good article btw.
just a quick point about ”pointing out obvious”, saying that houlliers team finished 4th. I remember than season very well and the only worse football ive ever seen from liverpool came in the first 10games of this season. there was nothing to celebrate finishing 4th that year.it only happened because A) There was no competition then besides arsenal,man utd and chelsea and B) because steven gerrard almost single handedly dragged a hugely underperforming team (that used to consistantly play long balls and use riise’s long throw ins) just ahead of everton.
Gray has an agenda and a shortage of brain cells. He argues against something he doesn’t like e.g. zonal marking and yet fails to criticize his own ‘flawless’ system of man to man marking despite the fact that he spent about 20 minutes dissecting the Villa defensive frailties and Ngog’s goal using, yes, you guessed it, his preferred system. Both systems have a common flaw – players – they are all capable of making mistakes or simply not being good enough to execute the system well.
Gray is a clown. That’s why his biggest responsibility is not to manage a team..but to move arrows around on a touch screen TV.
Seriously what is Andy Gray on about? Is it because Roy’s English and Rafa’s not? We had the team with the second most internationals at the World Cup and Rafa left us with something like 15 internationals. He bought excellent players to the club with very limited funds. Reina was signed for only 6 mil and is now regarded as one of the best ‘keepers in the game. Skrtel and Agger were signed on the cheap and have established themselves as top quality centre backs. Arbeloa was an unknown player signed by Rafa who has since joined Real Madrid and is part of the Spain squad. He bought Torres for 20 mil who is now one of the best strikers in the world and brought in Masch from West Ham reserves and turned him into Argentina’s captain.
Our team is full of quality, it just lacks depth. How can you possibly say that Rafa left us with a poor squad. I cannot believe that these so called pundits are criticizing Rafa since he left us with so many world class players. And if he believes that Roy inherited a poor squad then what has he done to improve it? Loan out 20 mil Aquilani, sign Fulham’s 29 year old Konchesky and out of favour 30 year old Juventus midfielder Poulsen?
spot on
not only did rafa buy excellent players generaly he also missed out on some excellent signings that would have won us the league only to be undermined by first Rick Parry and then the brainless yanks.
Daniel Alves- Parry would not pay 10 mill for him
David Villa – I remember we put in a 5 mill bid but could have got him for 7.
Simao
Barry
there were a few others I cannot remeember names now.
higuain and aguero
agree 100%
andy gray talks out of his backside, houiller was the worst manager after souness.he outed fowler far too early played the worst footie i have seen at anfield.rafa was by far the better manager look at the european nights we had with rafa? superb houillers were crap compaired to his and we were lucky to finish once in the quarters with him.rafa got us there every year except his last one.both bought bad players houiller got on better with players than rafa, thats why carra and sg liked him. butask most fans whos better weres houillers flag? weres his name? not seen rafas is iam aseson ticket holder have been for years born/bred in liverpool,rafas time might of been up but he gave me more great times than houiller ever did, not just instanbul all aRR euro nights..and to this day he is allso better than hodgson who is way out of his deph…
Its never about the players, its about what you can get from those players …
Rafa is history, Roy is now .. get with the script guys and stop this waste of energy, if you truely support LFC then negative talk from the past is just not acceptable … time to be the 12th man, if you can remember what that is and what that means ?
RR
Hicks regime gave Rafa a very hard time ,you can see the first 2 yrs of Rafa things went very well bt they reduced Rafa power day after day, they even failed even to renew his contract at the right time when liver was top of the table while plotting other managers as replacement. Dont blame Rafa people should blame Hicks . comparing Rafa & houlier is a joke to Rafa. Salif DIAO, DIOF, TITI CAMARA, BISCAN, TRAORE are even shame to hear that they play 4 liverpool
Err think you’ll find that rafa was here for three and a half years before the arrival of the conmen and was actually given a fantastic kitty in their first year to buy the likes of torres. don’t know why rafa fans use the lack of transfer money as an excuse for rafa whilst using it as a weapon against roy. if you want to praise rafas european record do if you want to criticize roys negative tactics fine but in league football rafa failed for 6 years (last 2 badly funded) that’s why he isn’t right man for liverpool. we want the league not europe! don’t we?
Well to blame Rafa for not winning the league is pure nonsense cause no other Liverpool manager has won the Premier League and to add to that, Rafa wasn’t even given the support and the funding he deserved in his 6 years at the club. He couldn’t win the league but he still got us our highest ever Premier League standing and point tally. And may I remind you that he won us the Champions League in his first year too.
Agree with you gharib. Rafa pretty much managed the team all by himself and he did not have the support of the board and Hicks wanted him out. He did a fantastic job all by himself but sadly he was treated unjustly at the end of last season despite all the work he had done for the club. I wish him all the very best at Inter and for the future.
i took my grandson to see the reserves as robbie fowler was playing, robbie scored 5 great goals hit the post and the keeper made 3 great saves from his shots, i was really looking forwardto an in form fowler playing in the next first team game – houlier never picked him for ages and we were not scoring goals ? IDIOT !
Gray is an idiot Liverpool hating S*n loving c*nt.
The tw*t is full of s**t.
End of story.
Frank – well said mate
Andy gray never seizes to amaze me with his rubbish!
when he said it I thought WoW this guy really doesn’t have a clue or he like i and many have always thought was singing from his old agenda sheet!
my bro is a hardened chelski fan and even he was like what the he’ll is he talking about…
says it all I think!