Rafa Benítez (unemployed)

Rafa wanted to sign Danny Ings before he went to Southampton.😭😭

Not his love poster Rondon?

Rafa wanted to sign Danny Ings before he went to Southampton.😭😭

Rondon and Ings would have still cost less than Joelinton.

Rondon and Ings would have fucking ruined most PL defenses under Rafa tbh

Absolutely superb article by Rafa in the Athletic analysing Liverpool’s tactics and style of play – to think we let this man walkaway when he wanted to stay and replaced him with the current imbecile.

 

Cheers Mike – fat wanker.

 

Hurts every time.

Absolutely superb article by Rafa in the Athletic analysing Liverpool’s tactics and style of play – to think we let this man walkaway when he wanted to stay and replaced him with the current imbecile.

 

Cheers Mike – fat wanker.

 

It's disgraceful.

It's disgraceful how the media and a large section of our fans reacted to the club LETTING GO of a world class manager for having ambition, and then replacing him with statistically one the worst managers in Premier League history.

I don't care if it's your dead grans dying wish that you continue going to the matches for her. You're just as complicit as Ashley in destroying this club.

The fact that so many clowns on Twitter are criticizing Rafa now and saying Bruce is doing a much better job just shows where we are. Depressing that one man has been able to divide and conquer the fanbase.

so many of our defenders finding their scoring boots at the same time for a stretch of games there was actually kinda miraculous I mean, Bruce had absolutely no part in it yet he's given credit. A gameplan of "cling onto the game for dear life and try to nick something"(34% possession) has resulted in almost safety and the idiots of the world think it's genius rather than "winning a lottery 5 consecutive weeks" levels of improbable luck.

The fact that so many clowns on Twitter are criticizing Rafa now and saying Bruce is doing a much better job just shows where we are. Depressing that one man has been able to divide and conquer the fanbase.

Genuinely stuns me how many people  on them supporter pages on fb etc say that... especially  after we threw  away a 2goal lead against  oxford, people were praising him for  "taking the cups seriously" and for being the the 1st man in 14years to guide us past the 4th round of the cups something  "rafa didn't  do"  even talking  to people  this season who say hes doing alright, and that were "so and so many points  better off than last season" etc its actually scary how moronic the majority  of this clubs fan base are.... unbelievable  how much I miss having rafa as our manager

"Money allows you to make mistakes and get away with it. If you buy, in theory, five good quality and expensive players and one or two aren’t right straight away, the other three can still make a big difference. When you have to wheel and deal, the chances are you’ll make more errors because you’re signing players from a different level."

Something his previous employers could never grasp.

Atsu

Lejeune

Manquillo

Merino

Murphy

Joselu

Kenedy

Dubravka

Slimani

Schar

Muto

Rondon

Fernandez

Ki

Bargain budget. How many real successes? 7? 3 outright failures maybe? Not bad given the budget.

loved the little snippet about him from the crouch podcast; while other clubs were putting players in single rooms rafa stuck with the old sharing model and made sure to put players together by position hoping they'd sit at night talking about the game and how to improve etc.

Something his previous employers could never grasp.

 

Atsu - played his part getting us up, but now surplus

Lejeune - success

Manquillo - success

Merino - missed opportunity

Murphy - huge fuck up

Joselu - played his part, would have been useful this season

Kenedy - erm, eventually shit

Dubravka - success

Slimani - fuck up

Schar - success

Muto - fuck up

Rondon - success

Fernandez - success

Ki - solid squad player until bruce appeared

 

How much was Murphy, £12m? Bad signing obviously but not that much money in real premier league context.

Miss this guy so much

Miss my old club so much too

Joselu, Muto and Murphy were the ones I was thinking as being outright failures; but the Hoss just seems like a really unfair stick to beat Rafa with  because he had so little money to spend on a striker that summer.

How much was Murphy, £12m? Bad signing obviously but not that much money in real premier league context.

Peanuts, plus we also don't know how many other signings got rejected before he reached that one on the list - I doubt him or Muto were his top choice for the summer.  They could never force signings on him, but they could also reject his ones until he finally provided one that suited their needs.

Murphy was a club signing!

Joselu, Muto and Murphy were the ones I was thinking as being outright failures; but the Hoss just seems like a really unfair stick to beat Rafa with  because he had so little money to spend on a striker that summer.

Joselu was £5m

For the money we paid he was alright.  OK he was shit at football but...... £5m

I think on a caulkin pod on the athletic it was mentioned that Murphy was highly rated by Nickson and was really one Rafa got behind rather than lead himself.

Makes sense.

On the flip side, though of those three. I feel like Joselu had nothing else to give while I'm not convinced we ever saw the best of Murphy. Atsu kept getting picked ahead of him even when he was playing well and Atsu was being his usual self. Felt like the lad couldn't catch a break and just get a fair run in the side because we couldn't afford to give him time.

My take:

Atsu - served purpose in Championship, was good rotation player at times, was never meant to be starter. Rafa trusted him and he seemed to always perform in 2nd half of season

Lejeune - when fit, outstanding. injuries out of his control. one of the classier CBs we've ever had.

Manquillo - looked like he was a player reborn in the RWB role back end of last season. Could see him really growing into that role under Rafa.

Merino - looked class. left too soon.

Murphy - pure confidence player. but was a Nickson signing if ever.

Joselu - extremely limited, never meant to be the main man, but served his purpose for Rafa.

Kenedy - that loan spell was brilliant and had he been signed permanently that summer i think he would have carried that momentum into being class last season.

Dubravka - one of our best keepers in a long long time

Slimani - late loan, looked a different side when he came on versus Southampton and Arsenal. Shame it didn't work out for him.

Schar - fantastic player and would have continued to be brilliant under Rafa

Muto - believe he would have been a good player hthis

Rondon - brilliant. should still be our #9

Fernandez - outstanding player, leader.

Ki - served his purpose under Rafa but was never meant to be more than rotation

Seemed like majority of hits and very few misses - Murphy, Muto glaring. Loans don't really count when they can be sent right back.

I don’t really feel the need to justify it anyway. We all know Rafa was working under very bad restrictions and he’s a million times the manager that Bruce is. Simple as that really.

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these wankers decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least.

Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praising the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

Mike Ashley = Caesar

Rafa = Maximus

He couldn't handle Rafa becoming so powerful, popular and respected so fast. While also challenging the "leaders" to be more ambitious and make this club what it can and should become again. It's utter fucking depressing and shit. Shit cunts! Wonder what could have been...

It's so annoying that we didn’t build on the last half of last season when we were the 4th top scorers and the 7th best team in the league. To think these w*****s decided to pay £40m (HA HA) for Joelinton rather than keep Rafa and Rondon is beyond me. With the league this year, I think if those had of stayed – Perez more than likely would have too – and a few more decent additions then we’d be where Sheff Utd are at least.

 

Utter bellends they are and the same applies to any NUFC fans who are slating Rafa whilst praisng the utter foreskin that we currently have in our dug-out.

If we were where Sheff Utd are now then the club would be bricking it because we might qualify for Europe and the fat man won’t want that.

Our relatively comfortable position at the moment is exactly where Ashley wants us to be. The sad thing is many will see it as an acceptable season if we manage to get past West Brom (We’ll get knocked out in the quarters by the first good side we face) and go on to avoid relegation. The cycle then starts again next year to be repeated once more...

I keep saying to myself that I can’t be bothered to watch/keep track of our games but still do every week, even though it’s pointless in the grand scheme of things.