02 Dec 2021 09:23:06
Had an interesting chat with my red cousins last night (once they had stopped laughing) , and they pointed out a few things about Benitez that I hadn't thought of.
Firstly when he went to Lpool he inherited Houliers team, a team that had Gerrard and Alonso in there midfield, probably two of the best midfielders at the time.
Haulier was always adamant that it was his team that won the Champions League not Benitez.
They also pointed out that if you look at his record he wins cups not titles, and they believe that this was mainly because he was good at setting teams up for one off games due to his style of play, but not a league title.
So I asked why did you get rid of him and their answer was, because we were never going to win the league playing that way, and fans were getting frustrated with his style of play.
They then had a last little dig saying he's good enough for you because you will never win the league, but you could have a decent cup run.
Don't you just love your relatives.

1.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 09:38:11
Hey Bob

LFC fan here - this is a load of crap mate. Alonso was brought to the club by Benitez so that's the first mistake.

Secondly Benitez won the league twice with Valencia which was an amazing feat considering the talent Real Madrid and Barcelona had at the time. He also cam very close to winning the league with Liverpool until his 'facts' speech about Man United.

The one thing your cousins did get right is Everton are not expected to be in a title race let alone win the title, if he gets you far in cups or wins one then that would be a massive achievement (at the moment) - think what Evertonians want to see is progress.

Maybe his methods are a little outdated now but the squad you have bar DCL is championship quality and that's the harsh reality.

I honestly hope you give a manager time to implement his ideas and maybe lay down foundations for the future.

2.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 09:45:18
I will message them back and tell them what you said Ox. Obviously not Houliers team then.

3.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 09:46:46
So are you saying he’s really a Championship manager Ox?
Because he has definitely won that.

4.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 09:53:42
Love it Woburnblue.

Might be a blessing in disguise if he is a championship manager as at the moment it looks like that's where you are heading. :P.

5.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 10:06:53
It certainly does mate.

6.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 10:45:35
On a serious note, i'd like Everton to be better as i enjoy the rivalry between the two clubs. Would be great if we could wind back to how the 80's were - none of this plastic clubs like City and Chelsea.

7.) 02 Dec 2021
02 Dec 2021 13:22:36
He tried to replace Alonso with Gareth Barry if my memory serves me right. I would have to check but I thought Alonso was brought in by Rafa when he first joined Liverpool.

{Ed001's Note - you are correct he did bring in Alonso.}