![Post Post](https://www.liverpoolfc-newkit.co.uk/styles/lfc/imageset/icon_post_target.gif)
Couldn't help feeling a tinge of anger in reading Stu's post, and I'm sure many of you felt the same. Why? Because deep down we know there is truth in some of it.
This team hasn't improved enough in the time Benitez has had and with the money he's spent. Fact. He overachieved immensely in his first season by winning the CL and then we showed good improvement in the league the following season, but like Stu and St Mike have suggested, we haven't made significant improvement since. He is too negative in his tactics, our players seem instructed to contain teams rather then go for the win, and there is very little fluidity in our attacking play, even when we are supposedly playing well. He is over-analytical, and imo a more simplistic tactical approach would yield better results with this lot of players.
It makes me wonder how Benitez managed to win the CL with players like Baros, Traore, Biscan etc... Was Benitez the main factor? Or do we underestimate the influence of his other backroom staff who have all since moved on? Paco Herrera, Pako Ayesteran and Jose Ochotorrena have since left. Heighway and Miller have also left. Why has there been such a high turnover of coaching staff under Benitez?
Is language the problem? Is he not able to convey his at times complex tactics to our players in a way that they understand exactly what is expected. Is that why so many of our players look uncertain what to do when they get the ball?
Do we still trust this manager's judgement? For me there have been too many poor signings, too many players rotated out of form and too many left disgruntled by either his cold-natured man management or his under-use of them. He is ruthless in his own way, no doubt about it, and at times our players look too scared to make a mistake, and will too often make a square pass. His obsession with effort and workrate over skill is worrying and unfounded.
I feel we are approaching judgement day for Benitez. I have said before that the ONLY thing that saved his job last season was the fans' disapproval of the owners. They were made out to be the villains and Benitez the 'hard done by'. No doubt the owners are the greater evil, they are out to screw the club for cash, whereas all Benitez has ever tried to do for us is his best and what he thinks is best for the club. But make no mistake about it, if the owners had kept their mouths shut and sorted the new stadium with their own cash, Benitez would probably have been sacked by now. Last season was just not good enough, scraping into 4th was unacceptable and it still isn't.
Having said all that, who would you replace him with? Now is not the time to change the manager, he has to be given until the end of the season. My gut feeling? We won't win a significant trophy this season and it will be Benitez's last. I hope I'm wrong.
This team hasn't improved enough in the time Benitez has had and with the money he's spent. Fact. He overachieved immensely in his first season by winning the CL and then we showed good improvement in the league the following season, but like Stu and St Mike have suggested, we haven't made significant improvement since. He is too negative in his tactics, our players seem instructed to contain teams rather then go for the win, and there is very little fluidity in our attacking play, even when we are supposedly playing well. He is over-analytical, and imo a more simplistic tactical approach would yield better results with this lot of players.
It makes me wonder how Benitez managed to win the CL with players like Baros, Traore, Biscan etc... Was Benitez the main factor? Or do we underestimate the influence of his other backroom staff who have all since moved on? Paco Herrera, Pako Ayesteran and Jose Ochotorrena have since left. Heighway and Miller have also left. Why has there been such a high turnover of coaching staff under Benitez?
Is language the problem? Is he not able to convey his at times complex tactics to our players in a way that they understand exactly what is expected. Is that why so many of our players look uncertain what to do when they get the ball?
Do we still trust this manager's judgement? For me there have been too many poor signings, too many players rotated out of form and too many left disgruntled by either his cold-natured man management or his under-use of them. He is ruthless in his own way, no doubt about it, and at times our players look too scared to make a mistake, and will too often make a square pass. His obsession with effort and workrate over skill is worrying and unfounded.
I feel we are approaching judgement day for Benitez. I have said before that the ONLY thing that saved his job last season was the fans' disapproval of the owners. They were made out to be the villains and Benitez the 'hard done by'. No doubt the owners are the greater evil, they are out to screw the club for cash, whereas all Benitez has ever tried to do for us is his best and what he thinks is best for the club. But make no mistake about it, if the owners had kept their mouths shut and sorted the new stadium with their own cash, Benitez would probably have been sacked by now. Last season was just not good enough, scraping into 4th was unacceptable and it still isn't.
Having said all that, who would you replace him with? Now is not the time to change the manager, he has to be given until the end of the season. My gut feeling? We won't win a significant trophy this season and it will be Benitez's last. I hope I'm wrong.