http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1016 ... verpool-fc
Uha, hvor er der meget at råbe hurra for i denne artikel.
But everywhere I turn now, it all seemed better under Rafa than it does now, some 18 months after the club unceremoniously culled the man for reasons undisclosed.
Since then, the club has seen Roy Hodgson take the hot seat for six months, and now Kenny Dalglish has seen one year in charge, and still the Liverpool fans await the new dawn. After the sacking of Benitez it was noted by many "experts" that this was for the good of the club, that the club was aimless and the playing squad was weak, and that the manager was not able to compete.
Selvom jeg nu bryder mig ganske fint om Kenny Dalglish, mens Roy Hodgson var et mareridt, så mener jeg stadig han har en masse at bevise, førend vi får vendt skuden og kommer helt op, hvor vi bør høre hjemme. Kan godt være Rafael Benitez den sidste sæson, var kørt i sænk, hvor det absolut ikke hjalp med ejernes inkompetance, men han havde altså rigtig mange 'rigtige' tråde i sine gøremål. Akadamiet var ændret radikalt og vi var allerede begyndt at høste lidt frugter på den nødvendige ændring Rafael Benitez foretog med akadamiet. Trænerteamet var rettet ind efter en filosofi, at vi hele vejen rundt skulle forbedre os. Vi skulle forbedre lægestaben. Vi skulle forbedre de taktiske elementer på hele banen og på alle hold. Vi skulle forbedre os i fremførelse af egne talenter. Vi skulle forbedre vores scoutingnetværk. Vi skulle forbedre vores fysiske apparat, således spillerne fodboldteknisk blev i bedre stand til at udføre jobbet som fodboldspiller. Vi skulle forbedre vinderkulturen hele vejen rundt i klubben. Det var Rafael Benitez i rigtig godt gang med, indtil hans arbejde blev afbrudt og hans arbejde forpurret af inkompetente ledelse.
They also mentioned huge amounts of money that Benitez had spent, and they refused to put any stock in the "net spend" aspect of it, although it is now firmly used to defend mr. ferguson Ferguson at United as they currently look at their worse squad in the best part of 20 years (in the opinion of many people).
What people conveniently forget is how well Benitez did in terms of bringing world-class players to Liverpool on relatively little money. I say "relatively" because not once did Benitez have the chance to spend £30 million on a player.
Ferguson has spent £30 million on a player on three occasions now, in the form of Rooney, Berbatov and Ferdinand all costing £30 million and Veron costing a shade under at £28 million.
Ja, rigtig mange udefrakommende fans glemmer at se på net spend, når de vurderer Rafael Benitez transferkasse.
De sidste tre transfer vinduer, skulle Rafael Benitez sælge spillere for at købe nye. Det kommer man ikke langt med, hvis man skal kaste resultatmæssigt succes af sig.
Benitez never had more than £20 million to spend on any one player, and even then he only did it on five occasions. I say five occasions because only Fernando Torres cost £20 million, but I'm being reasonable and factoring in Glen Johnson, Robbie Keane, Javier Mascherano and Alberto Aquilani into this as well, who cost more than £15 million each.
(...)
Ferguson, using the same £15 million-plus logic, has signed around 12 players that I can recall. Berbatov, Rooney, Ferdinand, Veron, Anderson, Van Nistelrooy, De Gea, Carrick, Nani, Hargreaves, Jones and Young—and eight of them have been since 2007.
De Gea, Jones og Young er efter Benitez, og Van Nilstelrooy, Rooney, Ferdinand og Veron før Benitez. Her mangler dog Valencia. Så egentlig ikke helt rigtig sammenligning her.
Berbatov, Veron, Anderson, Carrick og Hargreaves vil jeg ikke rigtig kalde succeser, hvor man kan sige Robbie Keane og Aquilani har været 'silly money'. Dertil skal det jo lige siges, at vi fik et rigtig pænt beløb tilbage fra Robbie Keane, så egentlig kun Aquilani.
Dalglish is free to spend £20 million-plus on four players within 12 months—no, within six months—of starting his job, but he is not scrutinised like Benitez, who took five years to attain the same number of expensive signings.
Is there really that much difference between £6-million Pennant and £19-million Downing? Certainly £8-million Riera was much better than Downing.
The same logic applies to £7-million Crouch vs. £35-million Carroll. It's nonsense that such money was sanctioned to be spent on the big hit-man from Newcastle, who openly declared that he'd have rather stayed at Newcastle. Not a great start.
Downing har indtil nu ikke vist han har været bedre end Riera eller Pennant, og kostet en hel del mere. Riera og Pennant var på omkring deres respektive landshold, uden helt at være fast. Det samme med Downing i dag. Og Henderson for den sags skyld.
Crouch har så meget mere fodboldhjerne (måske lidt for negativt ladet ord) end Andy Carroll, hvor Andy Carrolls spidskompetancer måske lægger højere - er der noget der er højere end Crouch? - end Peter Crouchs spidskompetancer. Peter Crouch og Andy Carroll er begge targetmen, mens Peter Crouch kan lidt af det hele, er Andy rigtig stærk i luften og super med sit aftræk med venstre ben. Alligevel mener jeg Crouch er en bedre spiller, da han kan indgå som spilstation og langt mere mobil. Peter Crouch kan ligeledes arbejde som forreste forsvarsspiller, hvor Andy Carroll har vanskeligheder, ved at se hvor han skal placere sig i forhold til boldpres, medspillere og modspillere.
Rafa spent £6.7 million on the much-maligned Lucas, and it was declared a waste of money by many at the time. Fast forward to now, and he's regarded as one of the best in the division, certainly superior to Henderson or Adam despite costing much less.
I dag er Lucas en af de helt store spillere på det nuværende hold, og da en del bedre en den lidt dyrere Charlie Adam. Lucas er hver en pund værd i dag, hvor en direkte erstatning på 24 år, mindst vil koste £20 mio.
The current centre-back pairing of Skrtel and Agger cost a combined £12.7 million, or a single Chris Smalling in current terms.
Tankevækkende overfor en Manager der blev kritiseret for sine handler.
Yossi Benayoun was bought for £5 million. He was a revelation, and his zenith was in the 4-0 mauling of Real Madrid—another one of those amazing nights that Liverpool fans and journalists conveniently forget happened under Benitez.
Glemmer aldrig den kamp, og hvor god Benayoun var i foråret 2009. Tænk at bytte ham væk med Joe Cole.
Much is said of the brilliant Jose Enrique at present, and how his £8-million transfer has been the bargain of the season and a masterstroke by Dalglish. Of course, it is, but Arbeloa's capture for £2.6 million was just as impressive, if not more.
Selvom Jose Enrique har gjort det fremragende for os, og bør fortjene en landsholdsudtagelse, så er Alvaro Arbeloa altså stadig foran i køen til en sådan. Tilmed spiller Arbeloa for et af de bedste klubhold pt. Men ja, jeg vil da hellere have Jose Enrique nu til vores venstre back end Arbeloa. Dertil er Jose Enriques spidskompetancer større og vigtigere i den offensiv Kenny Dalglish indfører. Defensivt vinder Jose Enrique på sin hurtighed, men synes han mangler lidt taktisk sans. En sans som Rafael Benitez vægtede ganske højt.
Dirk Kuyt is now showing rustiness, but his signing for £9 million has been an unmitigated success in terms of his contributions over the years. His 67 goals in the last six years have been important, and it's even more impressive when you see the games in which he's scored many of those goals.
Jose Reina cost £6 million. It's just an incredible signing.
To af mine yndlingsspillere i dagens trup. Pepe Reina for £6 mio til kontrast til De Gea. Ved godt hvem jeg ville vælge af de to, hvis jeg var spansk landstræner.
Kan godt være Dirk Kuyt ikke har præsteret så godt i det sidste halvår, men hans forvandling fra Topangriber til højrekant har været forbilledlig. Hans arbejdsradius og pondus virkelig vigtig, når han spiller. Han er stadig en af de spillere der arbejder hårdest, også selvom spillet ikke lige fungere for ham.
All I can do now is wonder what life would have been like if Benitez had the money that Ferguson did have and Dalglish is currently spending.
Benitez thought he had secured the signing of Dani Alves, Nemanja Vidic, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and David Villa at various points during his six years at Anfield but was told the money was not there. He tried to get Barry as well, but the club didn't back his vision, and now Barry has gone on to prove he wasn't the dud that was talked about.
Tænk hvis vi kunne have fået disse spillere.
Så havde vi et hold som dette
Pepe Reina
Dani Alves - Vidic - Agger - Enrique
Barry - Lucas
David Silva - Gerrard
Kun Aguero - Suarez
Med David Villa, Glen Johnson, Torres, Henderson, Bellamy, Skrtel, Kelly på bænken.
Rafa's tenure at Inter Milan has tarnished his copy book, and people now regard him as damaged goods.
He took the job at Inter out of hurt and disappointment and now lives back near Liverpool. That's now much he didn't really want to go to Inter, nevermind Moratti not spending a single Euro on new players while Rafa was there.
He's one of a kind, the anti-Mourinho, but he got the better of Mourinho on more than one occasion. He deserves a shot at the big time once more, but I doubt that politics would ever allow him a Liverpool return, but he could shock some people with a go at one of the big clubs in Spain, who still hold him in very, very high regard.
Har altid været kæmpe fan af Rafael Benitez og han har rørt mig på mange måder. Elsker han tog kampen op med Mourinho, Wenger og mr. ferguson især. Elsker han tog på pub sammen med Liverpool fansene før en Champions League kamp. Elsker han tog de svære valg, og sendte fejlkøb videre. Elsker hans taktiske og udlevelse af Level 3 football. Elsker ikke mindst hans bidrag til Hillsborough kampagnen.
