The ‘Rafa Out’ brigade need to look at the bigger picture

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The fixture at the Stadium of Light this weekend was never going to be easy. This wasn’t helped by the lack of inspirational captain Steven Gerrard and Spanish front man Fernando Torres. Preparations for our mid-week game against Lyon won’t be helped by calls for Rafa’s head, either.

Going into todays game we had Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Emiliano Insua missing due to the troublesome international week. This left Rafa with a severely weakened squad to pick from for our trip to the North-Easts only Premier League outfit.

The result selection choices were, in my opinion, the best choices Benitez could have made given his obvious limitations due to injury. This left us with  squad worth around£65 million, a similar value to that of our oppositions squad based on rough and ready figures.

So, we lost the game, two evenly matched sides went into the contest and one came out on top due to a goal deflected off a rubber ball. It’s not the managers fault that’s for certain.

So, who do we look towards? How about our owners? Our squad had a very low value financially today, when put up against the value of the teams placed on the pitch by the other ‘big four’ clubs that played today. This is clearly due to gross under-funding when it has come to player transfers, something Tom Hicks and George Gillett can certainly be held accountable for.

Yes, Rafa did have some part to play in todays lost. Maybe changes should have been made earlier and yes maybe a different formation would have been a better option, but as a manager you have to take calculated risks in order to try and win a game, especially when you have so many key players missing. Rafa took a risk and it didn’t pay off, but that’s what you get with football.

Everyone who wants Rafa out isn’t looking at the bigger picture. If Rafa left now the current owners would happily replace him with a ‘yes man’, someone who would obey their every command and not care about the lack of investment and the resulting fall down the table that would result. An owner-chosen replacement for Rafa Benitez may well destroy this club, without someone to oppose the owners we are on a sinking ship going straight down the Premier League table.

To evaluate, with Rafa we have a manager who has lead us to a European Cup win, a FA Cup win and our best season in two-decades last year. With a replacement comes the long settling in period that would ruin any chance of league success this year and the demise of Liverpool Football Club due to our American owners using any new person in the hot seat as a puppet to do as they wish.

M. Owen

michael@empire ofthekop.com

15 Comments

  1. I disagree, it wasnt the best team we could of put out at all.

    We could of played four at the back, johnson, carra, skrtel, agger (or even dossena?)

    We could of even played Riera on the left instead of Spearing.
    I agree Spearing is a really good prospect, but at a time like this where we definately need points we should look at experience. And Riera is a quality player who should be starting every game if possible.

    Now I don’t like talking against Rafa as he is our manager. But he really does need to get a grip over certain things.
    He could of made some better choices concerning several areas.

    For one transfers.
    We could of definately done with another striker. True we have torres, ngog, babel, kuyt and voronin…but come on out of them torres is the only goalscorer as kuyt is always dumped in right wing.
    Couldnt afford one? why not sell voronin because he is pants, then we would have funds.
    Or even sell Dossena since no-one see’s much of him anymore anyway.

    If I am to be honest, I don’t want Rafa out.
    But if he doesn’t sort it out soon then we will be better off without him, since we can’t do much worse now.

  2. I have a love hate relationship with Rafa but I think he shouldn’t be let go. This was a great write up Michael and puts things in perspective, and I hope that people who wrote on facebook asking for his head will read this. But one thing in sports that will never go away is, it doesn’t matter what you have done but what have you done lately. I’m on my tenth pint and this lose still hurts but the sun will come up tomorrow.

  3. I agree with you Michael. I dread to think of who the owners would get as our manager if Rafa were gone!

  4. I’m getting a bit sick of people saying ‘look at the owners’ ‘its not Rafa’s..blablabla! We had no money in 2005 and look at where Rafa led us…its not all about money…its about making the right choices…and more often than not Rafa makes the wrong ones!

    It was Rafa who lost us the league last season by putting out sh*t teams for the likes of West Ham and Stoke, it was Rafa who alienated Alonso making him want to move to Real, it was Rafa that spent 17 odd million on an injured player for a position that we need cover for now, it was Rafa who brought in players not good enough to have a liverbird upon their chest (Voronin, Lucas, Dossena, Ngog) it was Rafa who has left players like Babel rotting on the bench until their confidence is shot, it was Rafa who turned down Michael Owen on a free and it is Rafa who is making this once respected and feared club the laughing stock of the English Premier League.

    People who call themsevles Liverpool ‘fans’ need to get a grip!

    There is no point supporting someone who is harming the club!

    This week will be the true test. If we lose to Lyon and drop points to United then Rafa is gone. If not, we should give him until the end of the season and then get rid.

    We can’t live off Istanbul and an FA Cup forever.

    We need and deserve a title to get this great club back where it belongs and I’m telling you now Rafael Benitez is not the man to do this!

  5. Sorry but there can be no more excuses either for Rafa or the owners. Lyon next and another defeat beckons. They are heads and shoulders above Liverpool who’ve only managed average or below average teams this season. We’ve not managed to beat any team that has ambitions. I’ve been supporting Liverpool since ’68 and most players in this team are a disgrace to the might redmen of the past.

  6. King KENNY Maybe?? it will be bizarre for rafa to leave halfway of season but he really needs to sort things out, especially the central mid area.

  7. i keep all my faith in rafa,

    even if we could start the match with reina – johnson carra skrtel aurelio – spearing lucas – riera benayoun – ngog kuyt.
    our way of playing was so bad. without torres and gerrard we seem to be lost.
    but i keep my faith in our manager.

    yanks out first, then saudi prince come, and after, only after, we’ll see about rafa.

  8. I agree with Michael all this rafa out rubbish should stop.
    Yeah we’ve had a terrible start and a few of our players are not performing especially carra but he will come good we’ve just got to thank our lucky stars that the other teams are dropping points.Rafa seems to be fighting with one hand tied behind his back as he knows what players we need but the americans just have not got the money to do it.
    This is where the the true problem lies the stupid american owners who only brought our mighty club a load of debt.
    So come on rafa, chin up we are right behind you and lets stuff the mancs and maybe we could afford to sign that beach ball because he’s better than lucas………….

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