Homepage Article Rafael Benitez Appointed Everton Manager

[Bkk Andy]

and?

That usually shows the teams at the very bottom were a bit weaker than usual, but we were pretty rubbish against them picking up our against the 'better' teams.
We were one win away from 7th place.

Carlos had us performing pretty well for most of the season. If we'd have avoided some of our long term injuries in midfield we may have got Europe.

Personally I think that Carlos never really got over having his house burgled and his safe stolen. Things started falling apart from there.


But I suppose none of this counts since the Fat Benny Kopite Kool Aid Kult have rewritten the history of last season.

Not just the teams at the bottom. The teams at the the top were weaker too. Several performed under expectations. I think it's also fair to say that every single team can bemoan injuries and/or bad luck.

"Carlos had us performing pretty well for most of the season" is one of the most bizarre comments I've ever seen on here. But hey you're the one talking about rewritten history so I guess you know this.

And for the record, like most, I did not want Benitez here. It's a terrible, divisive appointment of a man many years past his best but that doesn't change the fact that we finished 10th. We nearly and we were close means absolutely nothing. There were 9 teams better than us over the course of the season.

 

[catcherintherye]

Not just the teams at the bottom. The teams at the the top were weaker too. Several performed under expectations. I think it's also fair to say that every single team can bemoan injuries and/or bad luck.

"Carlos had us performing pretty well for most of the season" is one of the most bizarre comments I've ever seen on here. But hey you're the one talking about rewritten history so I guess you know this.

And for the record, like most, I did not want Benitez here. It's a terrible, divisive appointment of a man many years past his best but that doesn't change the fact that we finished 10th. We nearly and we were close means absolutely nothing. There were 9 teams better than us over the course of the season.

What doesn't change though, is we got 59 points last season. That is a measurable target to be assessed against.

The idea everyone underperformed and will now over perform is just speculation really. It's said every year. The same number of teams will probably over and under perform every season. If you were to look at the linger term trend it would be that the top 6, as a whole is getting weaker not stronger too.

 

[catcherintherye]

Whether we like it or not, Benitez is the manager of Everton FC.

Arguing amongst ourselves on here won't change that or influence the club one iota.

Abusing Benitez on here won't change it or influence the club one iota either.

The reason Benitez is the manager of Everton FC is not down to him.
He's a professional football manager and Everton had an employment opportunity.
He applied or was approached, discussions and negotiations took place and ultimately, whether he took any advice from club personnel or not, and whether he simply chose to ignore the clear feelings of some Evertonians - the majority shareholder made the decision and appointed Benitez.

Now as Blues, and irrespective of who the manager is, we should be looking to support the team on the field and praying/urging them to massively improve (certainly at home) on the form of last season.
If things go well, then again whether we like it not, Benitez will be deserving of some credit.
If things don't go well then no doubt, Benitez will be under no illusion where many will lay the blame - at his door.

However, everyone needs to remember that since Moshiri arrived and was instrumental in the departure of El Bob, he's employed Koeman, Allardyce, Silva and Ancelotti. He's backed them, largely ridiculously, in the transfer market much to the detriment of the clubs current financial status whereby in order to strengthen, we're looking at having to sell to buy.
If the necessary sales cannot be made in order to provide the funds for purchases, we cannot blame Benitez - the blame will lie predominantly with the majority shareholder and partially with the DoF who actioned and sanctioned some, not all, of the poor signings and crazy salary packages.

Benitez, to some extent, is managing with one hand tied behind his back in that he's having to try and turn a pigs ears of a squad into a bunch of silk purses.
If he manages to get a better tune from this squad than Ancelotti did last season - and I'm with @GrandOldTeam here - and achieves a higher finish than 10th, he'll have done an acceptable job considering the resources at his disposal.

I didn't want him as our manager but, there's nothing we can do about it now (or indeed previously as the bedsheet protests proved), and coming on here and calling him names is hardly helpful in terms of the equilibrium of the forum.

By all means reserved judgement on the manager but as Evertonians, it's time to support the team.

I think there are 2 things we all probably have to do when assessing Benitez (and they are contradictory). The first is wait until the close season is done. We were meant to have loads of money, then we were skint, now we are close to bringing Mateus Nunes in (though it's by no means certain). Let's wait and see what happens when the window shuts and then we can have a good idea of where the squad is. It's worth stating though, the squad remains the same squad lots of people felt we could break into the top 6 with last season and one that we got to 59 points with. If Ancelotti was still here, I think the expectation would be for a top 6 finish, so I'm not sure why it changes that far. But as I've said above, lets wait to see who we can bring in, and perhaps crucially if we lose any key players.

The 2nd point I'd make, is that we did achieve 59 points last season, in a year where we were disproportionately impacted by both not having fans and injuries. I know every team was impacted by both, but most metrics would say we had far worse than the league average on both. If we merely replicate last seasons points total we would finish 7th 75% of the time and in the top 6 25% of the time. That feels a realistic enough goal for me. But Benitez is not taking over as Ancelotti did (mid way though a season when we were in the bottom 6) Allardyce (the same circumstances) or Koeman/Silva (on the back of a team who finished with 47 points). We will probably have to weigh that against point 1 which is he may not have the financial backing of the above. The squad is not in as bad a shape as we like to think though.

As a final aside, there was a poll here recently that showed the overwhelming majority of blues will get behind him, which was good to see. If he succeeds or fails it will be because he isn't good enough or is good enough. His target will be to get more than 59 points, if he can't do that, he is going to get some stick, and he's going to deserve it.

 

[BlueInNZ]

and?

That usually shows the teams at the very bottom were a bit weaker than usual, but we were pretty rubbish against them picking up our against the 'better' teams.
We were one win away from 7th place.

Carlos had us performing pretty well for most of the season. If we'd have avoided some of our long term injuries in midfield we may have got Europe.

Personally I think that Carlos never really got over having his house burgled and his safe stolen. Things started falling apart from there.


But I suppose none of this counts since the Fat Benny Kopite Kool Aid Kult have rewritten the history of last season.

And?

Like the man said, we finished 10th. The rest is just gossip.

 

[Lord Buckethead]

And?

Like the man said, we finished 10th. The rest is just gossip.

I'd rather guage our performance against the other teams in the league, rather than other teams performances against each other.

Simply put, we won and drew more games, and lost less last season than any other season than 2017.
That at the very least has to be seen as progress.

Our obvious failings at home were something that could have been worked on.

 

[BlueInNZ]

Simply put, we finished 10th. That is as simple as it can ever get.

 

[jamieni]

Simply put, we finished 10th. That is as simple as it can ever get.

Yup. At the end of the day the league doesn’t lie.

If we had managed to find an ounce of grit and determination at home we probably would have got Europa league.

 

[MikeH72]

and?

That usually shows the teams at the very bottom were a bit weaker than usual, but we were pretty rubbish against them picking up our against the 'better' teams.
We were one win away from 7th place.

Carlos had us performing pretty well for most of the season. If we'd have avoided some of our long term injuries in midfield we may have got Europe.

Personally I think that Carlos never really got over having his house burgled and his safe stolen. Things started falling apart from there.


But I suppose none of this counts since the Fat Benny Kopite Kool Aid Kult have rewritten the history of last season.

Did you watch us play at all last season? We played well in about 4 games.

 

[BlueInNZ]

Looking forward to his first team selection. Reaction on here will be interesting.

 

[MikeH72]

What doesn't change though, is we got 59 points last season. That is a measurable target to be assessed against.

The idea everyone underperformed and will now over perform is just speculation really. It's said every year. The same number of teams will probably over and under perform every season. If you were to look at the linger term trend it would be that the top 6, as a whole is getting weaker not stronger too.

Not true. You can’t deny that City, United and Chelsea are getting significantly stronger every year and are probably about to break away into a mini league of 3 once Klopp leaves Liverpool. We’ll be La Liga before we know it.

 

[mahermi1]

What doesn't change though, is we got 59 points last season. That is a measurable target to be assessed against.

The idea everyone underperformed and will now over perform is just speculation really. It's said every year. The same number of teams will probably over and under perform every season. If you were to look at the linger term trend it would be that the top 6, as a whole is getting weaker not stronger too.

let's be fair though Ancelotti got 59 pts after spending £60 odd million, Benitez up to now has spent £1.5m.
I will stress that I honestly never wanted Benitez and STILL dont, but and again i stress, I still hope Everton do better this season, even win a trophy. I support the club not the manager, no matter who he is.

 

[little elfin]

We will lose less at home and lose more away from home.
That is my prediction lol

 

[catcherintherye]

Not true. You can’t deny that City, United and Chelsea are getting significantly stronger every year and are probably about to break away into a mini league of 3 once Klopp leaves Liverpool. We’ll be La Liga before we know it.

I suppose thats why I argued the top 6 as a whole mate and I roughly agree with your position. Spurs and Arsenal seem to be getting weaker to me (especially if they lose Kane) but the 2/3 above are getting stronger. I think Liverpool will probably be stronger next season in theory if their players return to full capacity, but that is still an if, but as you say when Klopp goes I am not sure they will keep up with the other 3 either.

I am always wary though of the idea that gets trotted out every season, that the top 6 just always get stronger. Last season the top 6 was meant to get stronger because the lesser teams would miss fans. Yet as a whole they got weaker (and actually nobody got to 90 points which had been happening regularly in previous seasons).

In all honesty, for us it doesn't really matter what happens with City and Chelsea as we are nowhere near them anyway. If teams 4-6 get weaker, which I think they might then that opens up an opportunity for us in the shorter term.

If I was predicting with a gun to my head, I think City will be stronger as they won't have the weak start, Chelsea will be stronger overall as they will have Tuchel for 38 games. United have bought very well players that improve the 11, but you also think with OGS in charge they could go either way. Liverpool IF the players come back fully fit will get better, but to me they have lost a key player in Wijnaldum, and a lot of their players are approaching or over 30 so going the wrong way. Longer term, when Klopp and Pep leave City and Liverpool, I think both will decline a bit as I am not sure how you replace them.

So it's complex. I'm not one for just assuming everyone always gets better. There are only so many points a season that can be won.

 

[catcherintherye]

let's be fair though Ancelotti got 59 pts after spending £60 odd million, Benitez up to now has spent £1.5m.
I will stress that I honestly never wanted Benitez and STILL dont, but and again i stress, I still hope Everton do better this season, even win a trophy. I support the club not the manager, no matter who he is.

Yes very fair. But Benitez still has Ancelotti's squad currently hasn't he? Ancelotti spent 60m and took us from I think we had 19 points from 18 games to 59 points. If we don't spend much, you can't expect the same level of improvement, but I think you can realistically expect continuity.

 

[4737carlin]

Has he got a press conference this week? Looking forward to seeing and hearing from him again.