It’s been over 2 years now since Rafa Benitez was ‘moved out’ of the club by the previous pair of cowboys. Many argue over his legacy and, to this day, many fans have mixed feelings about whether Rafa still has what it take to take us to the next level (should he ever get the job again).
There can be no doubt, however, that the work Rafa has done during his time at the club with the youth and academy teams is a real standout. For many years, we saw youngster being bought at almost the same pace as the first-team signings but very rarely got a glimpse of these youngsters. But this season, a lot of his hard work and the work of the academy and youth staff came to the fore and we saw in midweek Suso, Pacheco, Wisdom, Shelvey, Sterling and Robinson and Gulacsi on the bench.
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Along with a number of other youngsters who weren’t in the squad for Thursday’s game, Benitez has ensured that Liverpool won’t be left wanting for youth talent for the next few years at least and it is of the highest importance that the current ‘regime’ continue in the same vein, after the club almost lost a number of young players under Kenny Dalglish (see Sterling and Suso) and such genius moves as using Dalla Valle as a make-weight in a part-exchange move for Paul Konchesky (dear, god) under Hodgson never happen again when the players involved are so promising, as we’re now seeing.
With Shelvey again starting for the Reds today, along with Kelly and Sterling, the imprint Benitez left on the club runs from top to bottom and, on behalf of all Reds, I’d just like to say: thanks Rafa, they will be entertaining us for years to come.
I know the FSG guys have everyone’s interest a heart, but I cannot help feeling that ‘we’ as in Liverpool under Brendan will struggle this season. It’s early days but 5 PL matches with 2 points….. A big worry. So please Rafa don’t join another club we may need you again!
Spot on. To be frank i was one of those guilty of doubting Rafa just because he had one bad season, ignoring his success over the years.
During his departure, his successors consist of the following:
1) A small club manager who are chums with AF and got us playing boring football with a relegation battle thrown in. He also famously gave us players such as Poulsen and Konchesky.
2) A complete has been who blew 85 mill on players on the basis of their passport, not playing ability. These players are so bad that we would be lucky to recoup half the money paid. One , a winger return the favor with 0 goals, 0 assist despite a price tag of 20 mill. These days he is used as a left back. Overall this sorry excuse for a manager blew 115 mill to finished 8th and won us a mickey mouse cup.
To add insult to injury, despite being a famous striker himself, he has no answer despite us hitting the woodwork 30 odd times.
Overall we made records allright but all the wrong ones such as our worse point tally in since PL inception under his watch.
3) The current bloke is most well known for copying a Spanish teams playing style even though we do not have the right playing staff and to write 180 page dossiers. However i think no where in his dossier its mentioned how to win a football match. That is why we had made our worse start in more than a 100, yes 100 years!, still searching our first win after 5 games and in the relegation zone.
On did i mentioned that prior to coming here, he had 1 season in the top flight and won err…0 titles.
He err.. also has no plan B since he aggred to loaned out our plan B without actually seeing a replacement comes in first.
Rafa, these blokes could not even light a candle to you and if you still love us (we know youi still do) please DO NOT JOIN ANOTHER CLUB.
brendon will be given time, but he needs wins asp..other wise fans will get restless, i know its early days but we need to start winning… played well agaist the mancs today but its not enough we need wins asp…otherwise the noises will be rafa rafa.. fickle? maybey… but were liverpool…
5 games, no win, relegation battlers, worse start in more than 100 years, still early days huh?
Football matches are about results and that we haven’t seen under Rodgers.
Whatever it is we still need Rafa Benitez.
Rodgers will take us nowhere.
What an idiot. Rogers game plan is already showing and our soccer is exciting for a change. We will get better.
Although Benitez might be a good manager he needs to tone his own personality and he will go very far. He is unemployed and needs to come down to earth and start proving his worth again.
We all knew that but not FSG apparently.
We need another powerful striker and a goal keeper
I agree with Elias or they can just bring Carrol back. He proved that he can play, pity about the injury. Reina is a worry even though I am a very big admirer of him.
Shelvy is the next Gerrard and it was good seeing Gerrard back to his good self again.
Suso and Sterling are just what we need in the side. They are both brilliant. It would have been really good to have seen morgan get a run for a few minutes soon. Borini can get a bit of a break, he will need it since the season is still very long.
We were very brave today . It’s a young side with a great mentality. Don’t forget we played mutd off the park. We woulve walked it with 11 men. Rogers needs till Christmas to show us what this team can do only then can we judge. We play like we did under Rafa . We have an effective system and it’s early days in time lfc will be a force . Rogers is great for lfc loved Rafa but let’s support him. I felt proud today I’m certain results will come.,
We played a lot of team off the park, without results.
Idiots. Raga took 2 champions league winning teams to there knees. Ours included how can you credit him for Kelly. He was there before rafa as far as I know. Also not sure about John jo. Thought he was bought after rafa left.
Kumber, don’t say stuff you know nothing about. You clearly only became a fan last week if you say things like that. What did you want Rafa to do without a transfer kitty? He was turned into a bank manager. And as for Inter, who have you seen who succeeds with a Jose Mourinho team? Find me 1 person other than the inept Avram who just became a Mour copy cat.
I clearly became a fan last week and know notting about the club. Were you around in the glory days in of the rafa era and the famous 76 players in granted a lot of them were free transfers on high wages. (Another fine legacy left by your god a bloated wage structure). Only 8 of his signing were worth the money he spent . As for the mourinho comment you just made it clear that you are willing to settle for a second rate manager as of your words not good enough to fill Jose boots even tho they play a very Similar game (strong defence and quick on the counter attack) with different formations. Sorry for all the brackets but if I know notting about football I am very surprised that you with your basic grasp of the game even knows the sport Exists.
Rafa changed the academy in only his last 2yrs,when he finally got the power to run the academy. If he brought us so many gems in such a short space of time,surely as an LFC fan,we all would have loved to see what he’d have done with the academy had he been given more time. And the fact that all these youngsters were brought in by Rafa, is it not only natural,that he is the best man to use them. FSG, PLEASE BRING US RAFA BACK,IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENSIONS OF SUCCESS FINANCIALLY AND ON THE PITCH
The author refers to Hodgson giving Dalle Valle in part-ex for Konchesky. Kacankilic was also part of the deal, and he is now In Fulhams 1st team and started against us at Anfield last season.
Woy is such a genius!
Rafas last 3 signings Suso, Shelvey and Sterling
Suso said “I was going to sign for Real Madrid but one day before it the phone rang and Rafael Benitez spoke to me. He convinced me that Liverpool was the club for me and after that I had to change my plans. I was going to come to Liverpool.”