Liverpool FC Forum

[JBG]

Benitez inherited a very good team at Valencia but he also inherited a very difficult situation where Mendieta (at that time probably the best player in Europe), Claudio Lopez and Kily Gonzalez all were departing or about to depart.

He also had a problem in so far as some of the mainstays of Hector Cuper's team, such as Angloma and Carboni were advanced in years and about to retire.

Benitez worked wonders with Valencia, taking them the extra mile to the Spanish Championship.

His second season was disasterous, but he proved his metal by sorting out the problems and winning La Liga and the UEFA cup last year. That is the real quality of the man in my opinion: it wasn't all plain sailing at Valencia and he had to dig himself out of a hole when the team hit the wall after a brilliant debut year.

I also remember (in hindsight) that his Tenerife team were very competive for such a small club during his tenure although I did not know at the time who Benitez was.

The situation at Liverpool is different. We are historically a far bigger club than Valencia and even though Valencia occasionally buy big (such as their two Italian signings this summer) overall they are not in our league financially. However, the bones of a great side was already there when Benitez took over and he fine tuned the side to almost perfection. Had he taken over Liverpool, say two years ago, he would have been in a similar situation to that of Valencia as Liverpool in 2002 were a coming team and prior to that summer Gerrard Houllier had done a wonderful job. However, in the two years since that the team deterioated to an alarming degree and while Benitez has a lot of building blocks at his disposal, he is essentially planning to build an entirely new side.

That takes time.

Arsene Wenger pulled off a miracle by turning a plodding Arsenal side into Champions within 18 months, but he had a solid base of a world class back four and an excellent centre forward in Denis Bergkamp. What the Gunners needed was a change of approach and a new midfield and Wenger performed the impossible by getting EVERYTHING right in a short period of time.

Benitez doesn't have that luxury. He has inherited some very good players from Houllier, and like Arsenal he needs to change the approach and midfield, but he also has problems in defence and up front.

The environment has also changed. Wenger really only had a decent Man UTD side to contend with (Newcastle and Liverpool were never contenders) whereas Benitez has arguably the best English side in a generation in Arsenal ahead of him, a weakening but still powerful Man UTD and the unprecedented financial muscle of Chelsea.

It will take time for this club to sort itself out and unless we get a cash injection of Abramovich proportions and a bit of luck, there is no quick fix. Even in the best case scenario where Benitez works wonders and builds a Championship winning team, we are talking about 2 or 3 years before we claim the trophy.

However, I understand fans frustration as they want to avoid another Houllier situation. Houllier was ultimately the wrong man for the job and several powers that be in the upper echelons of the club were dealt a severe lesson. It is well known that Robinson and Moores courted Houllier from the early Graeme Souness days and it was Moores (and later Parry's) pride that stood in the way of making a harsh decision 18 months ago.

Benitez needs time to sort the side out, and he must succeed, but I think that the board, for all their failings, may have finally made the right decision in hiring him.

All I worry about is that maybe the decision was made too late, as Arsenal look like they can dominate for years, Chelsea will eventually buy the title and Man UTD will surely get their act together again.

[azriahmad]

Well said, JBG. This is the kind of reasoning that we should think about when we assess the task ahead for Benithez at Liverpool. You rightfully said that a true measure of a good manager was if he can turn around from a disaster to produce a winning team - Benithez did that at Valencia when he steered the club to their second la liga title after the failings in his second season there.

He is an intelligent coach and I believe he can do a good job fpor us, just please have some patience.

The bigger picture is that Arsenal is now playing sublime football and it seems Wenger is on a very big roll with his ability to buy/unearth young players who are excellent players and can provide more than adequate cover for their more established stars. Arsenal's game now is really superb, I have to say that it exceeds Liverpool's playing capacity during the Paisley era and also Kenny Dalglish's "champagne football team" of 1987-88 (I am being honest - I tune in to watch Arsenal's games because they are an absolute joy to watch even though I am a die hard Liverpool fan). Only thing is that they fail miserably in Europe. Out great Liverpool sides would still win the CL.

Let's get behind this manager and give him a fair crack.

[Redtribe]

I still saw good things from the Bolton game
Garcia really looks like a class attacking player he is someone that seems to have very good techniqe and a brain that makes good runs!
Alonso didnt seem fantastic but Hamann to me obviously slowed down our team and i see that as a good thing because hopefully that will help Benitez to decide to pull him out! The premiership is about fast pace and Hamann (for me anyway) robs us of that!

Also Josemi again seemed to have a fair performance though he did give a lil too much room for pederson!

All in all though that result was always going to happen and hopefully these 2 weeks off will help Rafa untangle some of the mess LFC has got itself into over the last 2 years!

[JBG]

Hamman was once a huge player for us but the times have moved on and his performances over the past year haven't been great. He's still ok, but he blows too much hot and cold these days for my liking.

His 100 yard staright as an arrow "passes" to the opposition keeper against Bolton left me in tears.

I hope Rafa doesn't try to accomodate Hamman by playing Gerrard out wide.

Gerrard and Alonso should be our new engine room with Kewell, Smicer, Warnock, Potter, Partridge, Garcia and Nunez all competing for the flanks.

[Redtribe]

i'm hoping too that Alonso and Stevie are our midfield 2 (it seems an obvious choice)
I think with Kewell Garcia Nunez Warnock we have plenty of competition for the flanks!

I do hope that in the next window he adressess our centre half problem because i just dont have loads of faith in the pairing!
I love Carra to bits but to me he is still a full back and covering player and to me that is his strong attribute!
But as a regular CH i get nervous!

Onwards and Upwards!

[106-1093504160]

win, lose or draw, liverpool always in the heart

[redandblue]

Good post JBG. Many of the fans at this club desperately need a reality check. Houllier may have established a top class training facility but the team he left behind was a mess. We have been a poor outfit for years now, and we weren't great shakes in the season that we won three trophies.

No manager on the planet could come in and turn around the shambles which Houllier created. We have a very mixed squad of players........one exceptional player, some good and quite a lot who are mediocre.

Benitez has a huge task in narrowing the gap on the top three. Winning the title is beyond this squad but Benitez has excellent credentials and given time he will have us competing with the top three. But the fans need to wake up to the fact that this season is about closing the gap a bit, not winning the title.

[106-1093504160]

redandblue, we won 5 trophies that season, not just 3.
the shambles was created by souness, and unfortunately LFC have been unable to change with the times. Perhaps if the boot room had gone just after souness, then we'd have had more stability. we need to be more adaptable.

[who the hell is diarra]

Unfortunatly at the mo we are up to our necks in Sh**e, (probabally left by Woof)  Rafa has a big enough   spade to dig us out though , i have every confidence that we will improve but there will be no quick fix and don't expect anything but more of the same this season. .

[JBG]

redandblue, we won 5 trophies that season, not just 3.

No we didn't.

The Charity Shield and the European Supercub were in 2001/02, not 2000/01.

The word "trophy" is a bit generous to those two, especially the Charity Shield.

The 5 trophies in one year thing was a bit of an exageration by Houllier to bolster his own position at the club.

[Fowler_E7]

yeah i think he was the only person to ever boast about winning the charity shield! He was unbelivable at times

[Dalglish]

Paisley said that although the charity Shield was an easy trophy to win it was a b.ugger to qualify for

[zarababe]

can't beat Paisley and Shanks for classic quotes

[106-1093504160]

didnt liverpool win a first treble b4 manure, ie: milk cup, league, euro cup and just missed out on the FA cup in the same year. lets not forget that

[mrcool2003]

the league is where you are remembered on the domestic front