2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Marius57]

Mina was in the squad 30/38 games last season and Ancelotti was always tinkering with his centre back partnerships.
James was in the squad for 24/38 games and flew home early when we still had an outside chance of European football.

So we ignoring cup games now? Across the whole season he made 3 appearances less than mina. Your argument was why pay him over 100k to miss half the games. You are either wrong in that statement, or you believe it for mina too?

He was injured. As has been confirmed by out medical department at the time.

 

[Yarrgh]

The fans, inc us Blue Geordies, as you call us, are realistic about the current state of the club, no one expects Champions League or league titles.

What we do expect, bare minimum, is a team that looks to have a coherent strategy on the pitch and players who look like they know what system they’re supposed to be playing, even if it’s sometimes not necessarily going to be pretty. Also for the players to look arsed too.

Instead what we’re seeing, is an absolute shambles. No strategy other than to lump the ball up to a Sumo in an Everton shirt, who can’t even make into the box, as he’s that slow most of the time and players who clearly don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing.

That is all on Tapas Tits.

My 15yr old lad summed it up really.

“ if you think your managers a prick, who doesn’t know what he’s doing, you don’t really try your hardest do you ? “

You're lad knows the score better than most.

 

[Toffee222]

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL YOU SAY?? WITH THIS SQUAD??

Preposterous. This squad is League 1 standard, I watched them play last Sunday mate.

After 37 games last season, we were tied on points with spurs on 59 points who were 7th at the time. That makes it perfectly obvious that we had an outside chance of European football assuming we needed to win the last game, albeit against Man city.

 

[d34noj]

But we had one of our best starts.
To be honest if it wasn't for the start I'd be calling for his head like others but that start has given me hope that he can get a tune out of a fit squad.

Oh behave. We coughed and spluttered to results, and we've been found out. We haven't had a good entire game yet.

 

[Joey66]

I hope we never go back to depending on the last game of the season points to save us Mike Walker - HK mark 3 days

 

[Marius57]

But we had one of our best starts.
To be honest if it wasn't for the start I'd be calling for his head like others but that start has given me hope that he can get a tune out of a fit squad.

We had the 2nd easiest first 10 games in the league. And we still looked appalling for the majority of it other than 15 min spells in a few games and 1 and a half games vs Brighton and Man United.

 

[summerisle]

https://www.teamtalk.com/everton/Rafael-benitez-sack-timeframe-replacement-kasper-hjulmand

 

[d34noj]

After 37 games last season, we were tied on points with spurs on 59 points who were 7th at the time. That makes it perfectly obvious that we had an outside chance of European football assuming we needed to win the last game, albeit against Man city.

Oh I'm aware of all of that. I'm also sure Rodriguez had a thigh injury, and wouldn't have left to go home (where he hadn't been in an entire year) without express permission from the club. If he was fit and available, he couldn't have gone.

 

[Marius57]

He was involved in 9 wins from 26 appearances.

Without him we won 8 of the other 12 games.

He really wasn't that good apart from a few glimpses of what could be. As I said earlier if he showed this more often he would never have ended up here.

Still contributed more than iwobi ever has or will. Why get rid of him after the window has closed, further reducing our options?

 

[Billy Dean]

I'm not quite sure what the pro-Benitez lobby feel that they gain from comparing Benitez to Ancelotti? Ancelotti has gone and there was near universal agreement that the second half of last season was abject. Beyond that, however, Benitez is behind Ancelotti in just about every metric. So, not only is the comparison moot, it also paints a picture of decline under Benitez.

I'm not in a pro-Benitez lobby. Just highlighting that the issues we're suffering with now were already there last season. 3 wins in 12 vs 1 win in 10. Not a massive difference. Barring 4-5 players we have a very poor squad that have seen off 2-3 managers already.

 

[windymiller]

These are all established premier league footballers with lots of international caps between them, some of which have won major tournaments. You cannot blame this managers coaching ability on them being unable to get the basics right now especially as they've failed for the past 6 managers.

If Benitez can't improve the players performance then what business does he have calling himself a coach? For the record, the three players he brought in, Gray, Townsend and Rondon, have also declined in terms of performance over the past two months (well maybe not Rondon, but his level is so low it surely can't decline further). Does he bear no responsibility for that either.

The fact of the matter is that our performances are in decline when compared with the start of the season. Some of that is down to the absence of personnel but some of it lays at the feet of our manager and his stale tactics and bizarre starting line ups. We will play our biggest rivals in two days time with only DCL and Mina missing from the starting line up, this was also true the last time we played the RS. Do you anticipate victory on Wednesday? If victory does not come and the teamsheet is essentially the same as last time who will be culpable? It can't be the players as they will be the same players they were last year, unless of course they have declined under Benitez.

 

[summerisle]

https://www.teamtalk.com/everton/Rafael-benitez-sack-timeframe-replacement-kasper-hjulmand

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Date published: Monday 29th November 2021 12:10 - James Holland

https://d3vlf99qeg6bpx.cloudfront.net/content/uploads/2021/11/29115107/Rafael-benitez-looks-on-during-everton-game-against-norwich-in-premier-league.jpg
Everton manager Rafael Benitez has reportedly learnt just how long he has to save his job, as the club’s board set their sights on a potential replacement.
Benitez’s arrival on June 30 wasn’t exactly met with great pleasure from the Toffees faithful. The Spaniard is a Liverpool legend, having guided Everton’s rivals to the Champions League crown in 2005 and an FA Cup the following year.

Benitez also seemed to claim that Everton were a ‘small club’ during his time at Anfield, although he has since attempted to explain the jibe.
The Merseyside outfit started the campaign brightly, picking up 14 points from their first seven Premier League games. But Sunday’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Brentford took their winless run to seven games in the competition. They are now 14th in the table and looking over their shoulder at the likes of Southampton, Watford and Leeds.

Sport Witness, citing reports in the Spanish press, provide a worrying update on the 61-year-old’s future. They write that he has just one more game to save his position – Wednesday evening’s derby against high-flying rivals Liverpool.
Should Everton pick up a surprise win at Goodison Park, then it would re-install some faith among the club’s board of directors and fans. However, another defeat would likely see Benitez receive the sack.

International boss in line to take over​

Everton officials have one name in mind as they prepare for a new reign. Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand is the ‘main candidate’ to replace Benitez.
He has plenty of admirers following his country’s impressive Euro 2020 campaign. They overcame Wales and the Czech Republic before losing to England in the semi-finals.

Hjulmand also gained plenty of respect for his handling of Christian Eriksen’s collapse. The attacking midfielder could re-join Ajax after getting an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted.
However, Everton may be left frustrated in their pursuit of Hjulmand. The 49-year-old has helped the Danes to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. As such, the Toffees would need to put an enticing offer on the table to prize him to the Premier League.

Benitez reacts to latest Everton defeat​

Following the loss at the Brentford Community Stadium, Benitez told reporters: “We can understand the frustration of the fans but we are also frustrated.
“Today you cannot complain about the effort and intensity the players put in. They try until the end.
“We had a lot of crosses and shots, so you cannot complain about the effort. But you can be disappointed because obviously we do not want to lose.
“We didn’t deserve to lose but the reality is the team is giving everything on the pitch and you can see the togetherness of the players.”

 

[windymiller]

Well Watford and Wolves with Richarlison and Doucoure on the pitch I would be more confident but its disingenuous to be looking at Liverpool & Arsenal away coming up and claiming anything but 3 points shows he ain't good enough when we haven't won a derby at Goodison since 2010 and our record at the Emirates is shocking.

But if he does get the sack soon at least the one positive will be normally rational posters will return to being somewhat understanding of the problems the manager currently faces rather than being rabid dogs unwilling to listen to common sense or rational points.

I mean you would literally think Benitez has shagged half of the posters on here's wives and spat in their kids faces its mental.

So, it's not down to Doucoure being out of the team then? We still have a list of expected losses upcoming, according to you. When is our next 3 points? What would be a reasonable timeframe within which to expect that?

 

[JLW]

Some interesting points there. Just for a few points of order first though.
1) There was literally a banner, protesting against the board at Brentford on Saturday. I saw no such banner relating to Benitez. I'm not sure it's accurate to say there are no banners against the board.

2) My post wasn't a defence of Brands, it was just to point out, he gets a lot of criticism. It's just not true for you to say he doesn't.

Now onto the substance of the argument. Look I think it's possible to criticise the manager, board and DOF. In honesty each of them are partially culpable. The manager doesn't get let off because the board is rubbish. To me it's the opposite, he compounds the boards failings.

I get your point, in the broader picture if you want to compete at the top, revenue growth is the most important thing to do. Wage spend is then the most valuable thing we can have. Our commercial board members don't grow revenues. TV deals go up, no thanks to them, and Moshiri's mate Usmanov gives us sweetener deals. They don't drive revenue.

The DOF just doesn't run the club. The kindest thing I can say for him is that he is not assertive enough. He hasn't contributed to turnover enough, we haven't produced enough saleable assets, and he hasn't developed the academy enough.

The manager could take us down. He inherited a team that finished 31 points (over double) the relegation zone. Yes he didn't spend much, but he also didn't recooperate much. We didn't lose any key players. I'm sure some will make the argument about Sigurdsson, but I don't see him as an enormous loss. There have only been a couple of seasons in the PL we finished 31 points (or at double) clear of the 18th place side. It's almost inconceivable you get into a relegation dogfight from that position. It's not good enough from the manager, who is now over 1/3rd of the way into the season.

We are currently on our worst league run in 16 years. Worse than any 7 game run Martinez, Silva, Allardyce, Kendall, Smith etc went on. The majority of them were sacked for much less. If we lose on Wednesday it is the worst 8 game run in PL history. From a position of reasonable strength (or one of the higher points totals the club has had in the PL era). It's nowhere near good enough. If we don't get a result on Wednesday, I can't see any reason why we just give him more time to take us down.

None of that means you don't tackle the above too. But to me it's a worrying situation. If we have another 7-9 games like the last set, we will be dead and buried.

Everyone knows he will be sacked eventually, even his staunch backers know he’s a dead man walking. This fella will have two more clubs after us before we reach BMD.

Honestly if we get a thumping on Wednesday and they sing his name there will be hello inside and outside the ground.

 

[Marius57]

So, it's not down to Doucoure being out of the team then? We still have a list of expected losses upcoming, according to you. When is our next 3 points? What would be a reasonable timeframe within which to expect that?

Next season when we head to Stoke.