2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Rich1878]

I wonder if it’s down to Gerard no longer being at Rangers mate because he was really against him leaving when we tried to buy the lad the first time around.

Could of been that he didn't want to sell to us

 

[Efcjake]

2:1 when we're in the dolrums. That's pretty poor tbh if you're looking to say this is the fanbadse gone fopr him.

3:1 now Dave.

The tide is about to come in like a Tsunami wave. He's finished with the support, the ones who actually want the best for us at least.

 

[Ruairi77]

I really don't thing any manager with this squad would do anything! How have we managed to end up with this lot? It's a long story going back so many years, so many culprits, with many still there!

There was 11 solid professionals fit and available yesterday. The bench had youth and experience. It wasn't ideal but it should have been enough.
The manager picked the wrong team and set them up wrong. Then failed to change anything for 75 minutes.
He also didn't have the guts to maybe have someone other than DCL who had no match fitness, take that peno.
Benitez is the culprit.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

It’s half a season and a cup exit. Admit you were wrong and move on.

It is now - but a group of posters have demanded his head for a lot longer which imo is uncalled for regardless of your personal feelings towards the man.

This isn't a good squad that many managers can just walk into FF and get playing good stuff / winning many games it just isnt.

 

[MACCA75]

It is now - but a group of posters have demanded his head for a lot longer which imo is uncalled for regardless of your personal feelings towards the man.

This isn't a good squad that many managers can just walk into FF and get playing good stuff / winning many games it just isnt.

I’ll tell you this - it’s better than Brentford’s squad.

 

[luuk_deventer]

There was 11 solid professionals fit and available yesterday. The bench had youth and experience. It wasn't ideal but it should have been enough.
The manager picked the wrong team and set them up wrong. Then failed to change anything for 75 minutes.
He also didn't have the guts to maybe have someone other than DCL who had no match fitness, take that peno.
Benitez is the culprit.

It is easy to say these things with hindsight, but any Everton fan knows that these players are brainless and most have seen off several managers now.

It does not matter how a team is set up if the players available make simple mistakes, do not track their men and cannot pass 10 yards.

I’ll tell you this - it’s better than Brentford’s squad.

Brentfords squad has been together a long time, under a manager they have had for a long time, using a system they have had for a long time. We don’t have that. Our first choice 11 is better than Brentfords. I am not sure about what we had to play with yesterday.

 

[LinekersLegs]

Still cant get Sundays selection out of my head.
Feel free to skip over this post, at this point I'm just ranting to make myself feel better.

On the line up.
Why not just play

Pickford
Coleman, Keane, Godfrey, Digne.
Allan, Gomes, Doucoure
Gordon, DCL, Gray

I mean, christ, it's not difficult. That should be enough to at least compete with BHA
If you look at that team, they've all been outstanding at one stage or another.
It's not like its made up of Iwobi, schneiderlin and Alcaraz.

Yea Coleman is getting on and hasn't been the same since his leg break, but christ, playing him as an attacking left back boggles the mind.
Probably the most mental decision I've seen from a manager given Digne was on the bench. I honestly cant think of a worse decision.

And what's happened to Allan, I think Ancelotti knew his limitations and knew how to play him. Benitez has no idea, so he just strolls around.
Keane is the ultimate confidence player and seems to crumple at the first sign of trouble. Doesn't help when he and Allan have no idea what each other are doing, again, a coaching problem.

On recruitment, it's now looking like Ancelotti/Brands had both new fullbacks already lined up. The jurys out on who lined Gray up, so the only clear Benitez signings are Townsend, Rondon and the two old keepers. It's not encouraging.
I believe we should also have kept James till at least this window. (I know tons disagree with that)

And then the constant injuries (muscle strains etc) has got to have something to do with training.

But I think the biggest problem I have with Benitez is the constant primary school mind games, stubbornness, and pettiness.
Moyes played the undercard the whole time, it worked given his resources.
Martinez was the eternal optimist which was great till he tried to use it to paper over the cracks
Koeman, Sam, and Silva all had their quirks, some good, most bad. (Silva is the only one who seemed balanced and I felt sorry for).
But I don't remember any of them sniping at players.
Never mind Digne, He came out and said Yery was hard to manage because he's always getting injured. That may be, but what's the point of saying it publicly. There's none, unless you're working an angle, which Benitez always seems to be doing.

Phew. a lot of my chest there.
So poor coach, communicator, fitness trainer, team selector, recruiter, motivator. Is there anything this fella is actually good at.
I'll give him half the credit for Gray.

Despite his past successes I’ve never wanted Mourinho at Everton because of the aggro he creates off pitch with the players.

Benitez seems the same with creating needless drama and blaming players in public - just not a style I can warm to in any way even when the results/performances are good let alone when this dross is what being served up

 

[S of S]

So that's when this rot started?

Who mentioned rot?

If after 18 league games and all the unwanted records broken in that time, and you still cannot see that Bentiez is not the right fit for Everton, then we have no hope!

 

[Ruairi77]

It is now - but a group of posters have demanded his head for a lot longer which imo is uncalled for regardless of your personal feelings towards the man.

This isn't a good squad that many managers can just walk into FF and get playing good stuff / winning many games it just isnt.

The writing's been on the wall since october.
If we'd followed Spurs lead, we'd be better off now.

 

[Bedfordblue]

Ok, was Benites unhappy with the number of injuries at the club? Yes or no

Did Benitez have anything to do with the shaman being fired? Yes or no

If you answer yes and yes to these questions, then your claim is refuted and you must withdraw it.

 

[Ruairi77]

Despite his past successes I’ve never wanted Mourinho at Everton because of the aggro he creates off pitch with the players.

Benitez seems the same with creating needless drama and blaming players in public - just not a style I can warm to in any way even when the results/performances are good let alone when this dross is what being served up

yea, guess I'm just not used to it. It's definitely the first thing that turned me off him.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

In Norway, we have a rule that the center-back who is on the ball side sets the offside line. I would assume this is also the case in England when playing zone defense. Anyway, Solbakken (the Norwegian national team manager) had a chat with Guerdiola after a match, and asked how Guerdiola solved it. Guerdiola said the following: Alves looks at Pique, Pique looks at Puyol, and Puyol looks at Abidal, and they solve it somehow.

Now zone defense is something that has been used for a long time in Norway, imported from England, but outside of Scandinavia and the UK, this is a relatively new phenomenon. Rangnick was e.g. ridiculed around the 2000s for promoting zone defense in Germany. Many coaches, at least from countries that are used to using zone defense, have had problems when implementing this in other countries where there is no culture for this. Many have struggled defensively, and been fired.

Among others Solbakken in Cologne and Wolves. He failed to teach the players zone defense, and he said that Norwegian 12-year-olds were better tactically trained than professional football players in these clubs. Later he has had success with Copenhagen, but there they were far more adaptable.

Zone defense is now starting to become quite widespread, and now the biggest controversy is zone defense on dead balls. Guerdiola and many other top coaches use it.

Anyway, when I see Keane play football, and I see that he constantly uses the ball and opponent as the only reference, I know it's a long uphill. The same can be said about the rest of the Benny Hill gang behind there. However, they will learn it, but for some, such as at school, it takes a little longer.

Quite interesting insight there mate. I do wonder if it's perhaps not the smartest idea to keep pushing zonal defence if the players are struggling to adapt to it.

I get that there's an argument that "if you don't try or practice, you'll never get better...". On the other hand, sometimes you've got to cut your cloth accordingly to the goons you have available.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

No mate it’s called patience has ran out and we the fans don’t deserve him or this run of shocking results. Give him 100 mil in January and this fella will still be booted from his job.

No mate?

What?

My post was in response to this;

would be interesting to see how the poll would look if reset now - i personally would struggle to comprehend how any Everton fan could vote IN

This poll on this thread was created on 21st December.

We've had the ONE game since then.

Cry arsing to reset polls after every game?

If Brighton alone really swayed opinion from In to Out, then votes can be changed.

 

[woodsyni]

It is easy to say these things with hindsight, but any Everton fan knows that these players are brainless and most have seen off several managers now.

It does not matter how a team is set up if the players available make simple mistakes, do not track their men and cannot pass 10 yards.

Think most of us said it when the team was announced tbf, not with hindsight. The players aren't doing him any favours but his formation? C'mon!!!!

 

[Egil Olsen]

Look behind the results. After all, football isn't a results business.

Egil would rather we win the running stats. He used to be all about xG and xGC but we're rubbish at both of them now. And possession. And passing stats. And chances created. Not to mention actual goals, clean sheets and points. But behind all of that Benitez is doing great.

I think when you just think that football is about results, and forget all the other parameters, then you end up like us, or become a club like Watford.

Moreover, results are also relative. It depends on previous results, we are completely honest so we are a mediocre PL team, which was most recently a very good team in the 80's. Then you have to see how big investments we have made. Before this season, after a mediocre performance last year, we have hardly invested in players. So no big reason for optimism.

Had we been Manchester United, on the other hand, this would have been below all expectations, and would have been a scandal. But as I said, we have not exactly collected many trophies, and fought for the top spots in PL history.

We are 6 points behind a ninth place, which is a perfectly acceptable result considering our PL history and investments before this season. The performance is more worrying, but according to you, results are more important.

But what I am trying to say is that when you have to change a lot in a rotten culture, it will cause noise, and the positive effects will not come immediately. That is what is mitigating. But of course I can be wrong. And, as I said, performance does worry me, but at the same time I know that learning is not a linear process.

Arsenal have been through much of the same process, but it requires leaders to have ice in their stomachs, and not just look at the results. That's the recipe for a chaos club.