Rafa Benitez

[PaddockLad 14585]

i'd read that if it wasn't by that sour faced mackem bint

Darlow is quoted as saying he'd watched Cabaye's last four or five penalty's and he'd put them all the same way.....so Karl decided to dive the other way and saved the fucker

[Tooj 17]

It's no coincidence that a bit of continuity in the team has improved results.

 

Two more games to finish the job he started. If only he had been appointed after the Chelsea game.

The lack of Titus Taylor has helped too.

[Happy Face 29]

one more...

 

[ewerk 26344]

Jesus I'd forgotten how bad it was under Shearer. And that was with Owen, Viduka and Martins at his disposal.

[Renton 17775]

I don't think you can judge much either way after 8 matches using selective stats like this. Shearer was undoubtedly disappointing in the time he had though. Though owen, viduka, and martins were utterly pathetic that year.

[Happy Face 29]

I don't think you can judge much either way after 8 matches using selective stats like this. Shearer was undoubtedly disappointing in the time he had though. Though owen, viduka, and martins were utterly pathetic that year.

 

So the jury is still out on whether Benitez is an improvement on McClaren for you?

[NJS 3978]

 

So the jury is still out on whether Benitez is an improvement on McClaren for you?

I always excused Shearer to a certain extent as he took over a squad of non-triers and confidence shattered failures.

 

However Benitez has shown you can turn that around a bit - experience not withstanding of course.

[David Kelly 1117]

Shearer was never a manager though to be fair to him. You'd expect him to struggle more than someone of Rafa's track record. Not that I think HF is using the stats to have a go at Shearer.

 

It's very interesting though that Rafa should be at the top of that last list when we've struggled on the goal scoring front for most of the last few seasons and Benitez is considered to be a fairly defensive manager. He's so clearly miles ahead of all but the obvious two other managers on that list that it just makes our other managerial apointments laughable.

[Dickie 0]

Am I right in thinking you've included Hughton's second division games in that list HF? KK and Robson failing to score at around 1 in 5, I'd instinctively say you probably won't find many managers in the top division better than 1 in 5. It would be interesting to see what the likes of Ferguson and Wenger's stats are/were. My gut feeling is that it is easier to score in the Premier League these days compared to when Keegan was manager in the 90s, but could be wrong there. The table really does highlight what a difference Rafa has made, and makes the likes of me realise that we were too soft on McLaren. I kept making excuses for him, in hindsight maybe because he seemed like a canny enough bloke who I wanted to see do well, but failing to score in 1 every 2.5 games is really poor. Even worse than Souness ffs!

[Dr Gloom 19824]

he's been linked with a move to everton if we go down, which makes sense as he'll be back with his family

[The Fish 8989]

he's been linked with a move to everton if we go down, which makes sense as he'll be back with his family

No way would he take the Everton job. Fans wouldn't want him, he wouldn't want them, it'd be a car -crash.

[Happy Face 29]

Am I right in thinking you've included Hughton's second division games in that list HF? KK and Robson failing to score at around 1 in 5, I'd instinctively say you probably won't find many managers in the top division better than 1 in 5. It would be interesting to see what the likes of Ferguson and Wenger's stats are/were. My gut feeling is that it is easier to score in the Premier League these days compared to when Keegan was manager in the 90s, but could be wrong there. The table really does highlight what a difference Rafa has made, and makes the likes of me realise that we were too soft on McLaren. I kept making excuses for him, in hindsight maybe because he seemed like a canny enough bloke who I wanted to see do well, but failing to score in 1 every 2.5 games is really poor. Even worse than Souness ffs!

 

Top flight only...

 

 

Difficult to make a call on the goalscoring difficulty. 5 of the last 7 seasons have had an average goals per game over 2.7, which only happened once before, but then 10 of the first 12 seasons in the premier league saw more goals than the average of the last 2 seasons.

 

[gpirlo68 0]

Aye, the game we didn't score under Rafa was Leicester and he'd only been here like 3 days

[Dickie 0]

Ah right, cheers HF - interesting stuff. Obviously the stats can mask a few things - Allardyce looks alright on that list!

[Dr Gloom 19824]

No way would he take the Everton job. Fans wouldn't want him, he wouldn't want them, it'd be a car -crash.

 

why wouldn't their fans want him? he's a successful manager and the liverpool/everton rivalry isn't like a lot of others - lots of families there include supporters of both clubs. there's not a huge amount of hostility between supporters.

 

i'd be less surprised if he took them on than i was when he joined us because of his family connection.

[The Fish 8989]

 

why wouldn't their fans want him? he's a successful manager and the liverpool/everton rivalry isn't like a lot of others - lots of families there include supporters of both clubs. there's not a huge amount of hostility between supporters.

 

i'd be less surprised if he took them on than i was when he joined us because of his family connection.

I'd be staggered if he did. Sure the rivalry is different (half & half scarfs at a derby ffs), but it's not different enough. imo

[Andrew 4220]

 

why wouldn't their fans want him? he's a successful manager and the liverpool/everton rivalry isn't like a lot of others - lots of families there include supporters of both clubs. there's not a huge amount of hostility between supporters.

 

i'd be less surprised if he took them on than i was when he joined us because of his family connection.

 

Called them a small club once, they don't like him.

[Dr Gloom 19824]

i didn't know that.

[Gemmill 34461]

Well you do now. I think you owe us all an apology.

[Renton 17775]

 

So the jury is still out on whether Benitez is an improvement on McClaren for you?

Had on, you're an intelligent bloke HF, no way should you be taking that from what I said.

[Dickie 0]

Aye, can't see him going to Everton cos he did fall out with them over that comment, but stranger things have happened. He would probably fancy working with their squad, plus the extra investment they're going to get from the new owners. I think it's wishful thinking to think he would stay with us if we went down but you never know. He'd obviously want assurances from Ashley about control over things and a guarrantee about transfer budget, and as we all know assurances from Ashley are worthless. I'd love to think Ashley has realised the importance of having a proper manager in place and I'd love to think Benitez has seen enough of the club and the city to realise that the place still has massive potential if it was to be run properly. If we went down and he stayed I'd be making an effort to go home and away regularly again, which I haven't done for years.

 

What he has done since being here reminds me of what Keegan did in 2008. He's reshuffled a group of underperforming players and got them motivated and looking like a football team in a remarkably short space of time really. I remember being at Birmingham away, mid-week game when Owen scored that equaliser shortly after half time (when he had missed a total sitter right in front of us just before HT). It really felt like a massive goal at the time, and sure enough turned out to be a turning point cos we went on a run after that and stayed up comfortably in the end. No mistake though, we were definitely going down under Allardyce. As others have said, the crying shame if we went down this time would be purely that Benitez has come in a couple of games too late.

 

I do wonder if the penny has dropped with Ashley about the need for a proper manager - on the one hand I doubt it cos the evidence was there back in 2008 with KK and he didn't learn then.

[Happy Face 29]

Had on, you're an intelligent bloke HF, no way should you be taking that from what I said.

 

Aye. Just thought you were having a dig at "selective stats" and didn't really read the rest of the post. Soz

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Pearl of wisdom from BBC live text:

 

 

A few years ago everyone laughed at Big Sam for saying he'd win the title every year at a club like Madrid or Inter. Well it's clear to me that he's a much better manager than Rafa who failed miserably at both those clubs, and is failing to keep Newcastle up this season. You'd run through a brick wall if Allardyce told you to and it's about time he got a chance at a big club.

Simon, York

 

[Howay 12456]

Aye he's spot on if you ignore the fact Rafa has had about 8 games to save a team and Allardyce had about 30. Fucking nugget

[Chaser 1054]

Is everyone ignoring JK and Houghton's stats? We are comparing Rafa to Keegan and SBR but those stats surprise me. Whats the win loss points ratio of the same?