2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[zukai12_]

He left over a decade ago. He's managed 6 sides since.

He has came in, with the interest of making Everton a good side, and I saw evidence at the start to suggest he's doing it. The reality is, the side needs gutting. Whether Benitez is the right person for it, who knows, but until you move on the dross... your Davies, Holgates, Gomes' etc.. you're never getting anywhere. Nothing players who are systemically part of the reason we're midtable fodder.

Sacking Benitez now, adds Gray and Townsend to a mishmash of ex-managers players who ultimate don't work.

Klopp got 18 months to work on it. Guardiola got 18 months. Why as Evertonians do we give the manager 4 months?

Klopp and Guardiola were some of the most in demand, high profile managers in the world when they joined liverpool and City

this guy has come back from a trip to Dalian Professional and doing decent with Newcastle

not comparable at all

 

[ForeverBlue92]

If he'd won one in nine mate any manager would be under pressure. But look at his recent track record... I don't think that'd have happened.

I look at Benitez's recent record. He went on a run of 2 wins in 16 games in China, mate...

But mate we were 5th in the table until the glut injuries hit - we have to give him more time before we can conclusively say he's good or crap.

We go to Brentford with 8 players missing - every side outside of Man City would struggle with that many players out and we have one of the worst squads anyway.

It just isn't fair on the bloke at the moment regardless whether you like him as a person/manager or not we have to give him time.

Realistically we were never finishing top 6 having spent next to nothing in the summer so use this season to see how he gets on and at the end of the season we can go from there but panicking at this stage is OTT just causes more problems for the club.

 

[ToffeeTim]

It has almost no practical significance. Another factor is that the distribution of points varies from season to season.

The questions I would ask are the following:

Can we recognize some of the principles that the manager wants to implement in the matches?

I don't recognise any style or identity in the side right now. We surrender the ball to our opponents and sit off. We don't create chances on the transition, but also are conceding too many goals. It's just passive rubbish from what I can see. I have stopped watching live the last two games because watching this abysmal side makes me angry.

- Yes, we can. See previous discussion.

What kind of factors are behind the results?

-Well, bad results correlate with injuries on a number of key players.

Injuries are a factor of course, but certainly not an excuse. They happen to every club at times and you need to adapt and find answers. I would imagine a lack of confidence and belief is also an issue right now because the form has been poor and the fans are very disappointed and disillusioned. We need to stop conceding goals to give ourselves a chance in games.

-On statistics that look a little behind the results, we do not really do so badly.

How is the financial situation, and how much have we invested in players this season?

- The financial situation is limited at the moment, and can not invest much money in players. Must get rid of players first.

- Has invested very little in players this season. The economy is limited.

We obviously don't have the money to invest heavily, but that's equally due to our inability to move players on and make sales. I lay the blame for this issue mainly at the feet of the DOF who has failed miserably to improve the squad.

But equally Benitez went for mainly older players when money was tight. The signing of Rondon has been disastrous because he is not good enough and is also blocking the pathway for a player to breakthrough. The manager needs to stop being stubborn and give opportunities to younger players in that position. No one can say honestly that Rondon is being selected on merit. His performances have been unacceptable.

What has been the situation for the club in recent seasons?

- Lack of stability. Many managers with different philosophies. Left with mediocre players on large salaries who are difficult to get rid of / or who have not had their potential unleashed due to a lack of stability in the system.

The club is at its most unstable right now, and a lot of that is down to the division and disillusionment caused by the owner's decision to appoint Benitez. You can't argue in favour of stability when the current manager is the source of much of the instability.

The squad is indeed a mess and lacking identity and quality. But we need a young manager with new fresh ideas to come in and help improve things. We need a complete overhaul to modernise the club and improve the squad. Instead we have a defensive minded, old fashioned, outdated coach in charge who has not built a squad in about 15 years.

When you attempt to overhaul a squad you also need a unifying manager who will be afforded the time to go through the inevitable teething problems that will arise. Benitez was never going to get time and patience, because of his connections and because he is well past his best. I can't even watch this side play because I don't need that sort of anxiety in my life. All I want is to enjoy watching us play football, but that's not going to happen until changes are made. Does the manager even have the desire to overhaul the squad, nevermind the ability? We are still seeing the same old players being given more chances, and that is pretty hard to take.

I think we are in a massive mess, but we just have the wrong man in charge. Results need to improve in the short term and quickly because 1 win in 9 cannot be allowed to become 1 in 13 or 2 in 16 or something like that. If it comes to that, then he will inevitably be replaced, because that's how the premier league works.

These are some questions that I would ask, and not just based solely on results from a fairly small sample.

I have tried answering these points as best as I can. Some of the points are fair, but others aren't in my opinion.

 

[kenada_blue]

Nobody is asking for free flowing football. We're asking for a bit better than what's been served up this season.

Also, every single manager that has been sacked needed to be sacked and none got sacked after three months, mate.

The football was fine up until up until Watford. Villa aside (very poor), we'd lost 1 in 9 in all comps. Won 5, drew 3.

West Ham was by a fine margin...then the wheels fell off when Doucoure got injured.

 

[barneygumble]

Klopp and Guardiola were some of the most in demand, high profile managers in the world when they joined liverpool and City

this guy has come back from a trip to Dalian Professional and doing decent with Newcastle

not comparable at all

It is comparable though.

Why does he not deserve time? Why does Klopp deserve time to stamp his authority, yet Benitez is only allowed £1.5m?

What are Evertonians. Why are we so high and mighty? Haven't won a trophy for a quarter of a century, live to purely exist yet weve got this attitude that we're too good for fella who's won multiple European trophies. Mental.

 

[Nymzee]

Horrendous....absolutely horrendous.....


View attachment 146596

So, 4 important injuries then, huge.

 

[jinkyali]

But say Galtier came in and had the same problems as the last 5 managers before him - would we be calling for his head? Probably and thats the issue we don't give a manager any time anymore to build anything.

Benitez may or may not be the right choice - but to pay him off now snookers us financially which we cant afford. If the fans genuinely worry about where we are as a club they need to be backing the fella not making it even more difficult because wouldn't it be ironic the money used to pay him off is what tips us over the FFP edge and a 6 point deduction saw us go down?

Could those same fans live with themselves knowing they contributed to our relegation?

Fans contributed to our relegation.
Good god.

 

[kenada_blue]

Not like the FSW is

Erm...they finished 5th last season. Have less injuries than us to key players...have the same results (won 4, drawn 3, lost 5) and conceded more goals.

How is that not worse than FSW?

 

[BlueToff]

But mate we were 5th in the table until the glut injuries hit - we have to give him more time before we can conclusively say he's good or crap.

We go to Brentford with 8 players missing - every side outside of Man City would struggle with that many players out and we have one of the worst squads anyway.

It just isn't fair on the bloke at the moment regardless whether you like him as a person/manager or not we have to give him time.

Realistically we were never finishing top 6 having spent next to nothing in the summer so use this season to see how he gets on and at the end of the season we can go from there but panicking at this stage is OTT just causes more problems for the club.

We were playing poorly though in terms of how we played, so we all knew that we were just one or two injuries away from it collapsing, and it did only take one or two knocks, and then we got another 3 on top of those to really stick the boot in.

I'd be much more lenient if Benitez had set in a system and a style because that's what we need. That's what gets you through spells of injuries. If your team knows how to play, knows how to defend and form attacks then you can get by and get results. But we don't - it's clear as day that we're entirely reliant on 2-3 players and those all happen to be out. That's on the manager as much as anyone else because it's down to him for that not to be the case.

Why do you think he's the right person? For once, don't give some daft excuse. Tell me what you've seen from him since 2016, when he took over at Newcastle, that suggests he should have been given this job.

 

[zukai12_]

It is comparable though.

Why does he not deserve time? Why does Klopp deserve time to stamp his authority, yet Benitez is only allowed £1.5m?

What are Evertonians. Why are we so high and mighty? Haven't won a trophy for a quarter of a century, live to purely exist yet weve got this attitude that we're too good for fella who's won multiple European trophies. Mental.

Klopp came in and in their first game he had them running ragged and quickly got a style in place

Benitez seems to want us to concede possession every single match and punt the ball up pitch - even when we had all our players

considering his current reputation in the game, it is on him to prove himself to still be a relevant manager - and he's not doing that at all

 

[blue to the bone]

I don't recognise any style or identity in the side right now. We surrender the ball to our opponents and sit off. We don't create chances on the transition, but also are conceding too many goals. It's just passive rubbish from what I can see. I have stopped watching live the last two games because watching this abysmal side makes me angry.

Injuries are a factor of course, but certainly not an excuse. They happen to every club at times and you need to adapt and find answers. I would imagine a lack of confidence and belief is also an issue right now because the form has been poor and the fans are very disappointed and disillusioned. We need to stop conceding goals to give ourselves a chance in games.


We obviously don't have the money to invest heavily, but that's equally due to our inability to move players on and make sales. I lay the blame for this issue mainly at the feet of the DOF who has failed miserably to improve the squad.

But equally Benitez went for mainly older players when money was tight. The signing of Rondon has been disastrous because he is not good enough and is also blocking the pathway for a player to breakthrough. The manager needs to stop being stubborn and give opportunities to younger players in that position. No one can say honestly that Rondon is being selected on merit. His performances have been unacceptable.

The club is at its most unstable right now, and a lot of that is down to the division and disillusionment caused by the owner's decision to appoint Benitez. You can't argue in favour of stability when the current manager is the source of much of the instability.

The squad is indeed a mess and lacking identity and quality. But we need a young manager with new fresh ideas to come in and help improve things. We need a complete overhaul to modernise the club and improve the squad. Instead we have a defensive minded, old fashioned, outdated coach in charge who has not built a squad in about 15 years.

When you attempt to overhaul a squad you also need a unifying manager who will be afforded the time to go through the inevitable teething problems that will arise. Benitez was never going to get time and patience, because of his connections and because he is well past his best. I can't even watch this side play because I don't need that sort of anxiety in my life. All I want is to enjoy watching us play football, but that's not going to happen until changes are made. Does the manager even have the desire to overhaul the squad, nevermind the ability? We are still seeing the same old players being given more chances, and that is pretty hard to take.

I think we are in a massive mess, but we just have the wrong man in charge. Results need to improve in the short term and quickly because 1 win in 9 cannot be allowed to become 1 in 13 or 2 in 16 or something like that. If it comes to that, then he will inevitably be replaced, because that's how the premier league works.


I have tried answering these points as best as I can. Some of the points are fair, but others aren't in my opinion.

For someone who has said they have lost interest mate you are very much involved in this debate.

 

[Zatara]

This is so weird but looking back at the past 5 managers, the only 1 which i did not mind watching through the 90cm, is Duncan Ferguson.
It has been cringeworthy football for so so long

Ferguson has been the only 'manager' who played front foot, in your face, winning football since Moshiri came in.

If you watch one of the games he was in charge for and compare with Benitez its night and day

But Everton - in this current guise - play the system like it is 2006. The '1' behind the striker is a player totally unsuited to playing there as we don't have that player in the squad. Gray is the closest to it but he gets a bit bogged down there. But then the issue is our wingers are too deep so playing Richarlison wide left means he's pretty much on top of the left-back.

Our full-backs are being told to stay back so there's no natural width that way, meaning the wingers stay really wide. That means there's a 20-yard gap between all of our players and they aren't the best of passers anyway. Our midfield has no energy to get forward to plug those gaps like City do, for example, even with Doucoure fit it's asking a hell of a lot of him.

It isn't working and isn't going to work.

Im amazed you managed to analyse the mess of 'tactics'.

Doesnt seem like the defence can hold a line and it goes downhill from there.

Its almost like people dont watch this stuff.

It is comparable though.

Why does he not deserve time? Why does Klopp deserve time to stamp his authority, yet Benitez is only allowed £1.5m?

What are Evertonians. Why are we so high and mighty? Haven't won a trophy for a quarter of a century, live to purely exist yet weve got this attitude that we're too good for fella who's won multiple European trophies. Mental.

Why didnt he sell anyone?

This £1.7mil argument is absolute nonsense...he could have sold players.

Be that a player for £5mil or £10mil he could have sold.

Instead he signed 5 players...3 of whom we didnt actually need. So he wasted the wage budget on 3/5 players.

Honestly, come on man.

 

[kenada_blue]

So, 4 important injuries then, huge.

Its massive for us.

Especially when the squad players are
also injured.

We go to Brentford with:
1 fit senior striker (Rondon)
3 fit midfielders ( 2 are rarely fit in Delph and Gbamin that won't last 90mins).
2 senior centre backs (Godfrey, Keane)
1 senior right back (Coleman)
1 senior left back (Digne).

There'll be more under 23 players on the bench than any team in the league.

But yeah...Rafael needs to do better.

 

[Zatara]

If Moshiri had given Benitez £100mil last summer what would be different now?

Same tactics?
Same subs?
Same lack of shape or defensive structure?

What actually would be different?

 

[davek]

So, 4 important injuries then, huge.

An utterly ridiclous reading of the evidence.