by Owzat » Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:47 am
I'm not "pro" Rafa, I believe in backing the team and not getting on the back of the manager. But the manager has to be judged by results and he's had two good starts to a season of which one flopped pretty badly (last season) and this season is faltering. Whether to give him another season is a tricky one, with villa becoming more of a threat - even in my eyes - and citeh having so much money and idiot, including Hughes, can't fail but improve them with spending, then time may be a precious commodity and giving it to a manager who's drawn 30 of his last 101 Premiership games (29.7%) is a massive risk.
Of course judging him right now is a bit daft, he could yet win the Premiership. Realistically I don't reckon he has what it takes - squad, team, tactics and other skills. Will he have it next season? Squad and team maybe, but he won't change and his failings in tactics etc will remain, so he has to win the Premiership with them or in spite of them - that's a tall order in my book. Maybe he was just lucky in Spain, not lucky in the sense he didn't deserve it on merit, but lucky in the sense that his style etc worked at Valencia BUT this isn't Spain or Valencia. At the end of the season we'll know much more :
- If we've won the Premiership
- If we've not won the Premiership then if we've run it close
If we've not run it close then that's two good starts tossed away with no indication that Rafa can even run it close let alone win it. And people want to tie up his contract when he could be zero, six or 12 months from sacking?!?! We gave Houllier plenty of time, his "five year plan" didn't bear any fruit.
99/00 : 4th in Premiership, 24 points behind the Champions
00/01 : 3rd in Premiership, 11 points behind the Champions
01/02 : 2nd in Premiership, 7 points behind the Champions
02/03 : 5th in Premiership, 19 points behind the Champions (after a good start, sound familiar?)
03/04 : 4th in Premiership, 30 points behind the Champions
Houllier got one more chance than I'd have given him, the gap was worse than it had been since 93/94 when we finished 32 points behind the Champions albeit in a 42 game season. Rafa managed to record the worst gap between Liverpool and the Premiership champions of 37 points (04/05), we won the Champions League so that was not made into a big deal as his first season. Would I give Rafa one more chance? Let's see at the end of the season, the way it's going the current feeling I have is "not likely" - ranks about the same as our title chances this season and isn't unrelated to those chances....................
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