2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Thomasc]

To play Rondon and to pursue him as he did has undone any goodwill he earned from the additions of Townsend and Gray.

However, as Ancelotti’s fans kept saying to us constantly last season, we are 3 points off 4th, so he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so please let’s all remember the key issue that he is just one of the problems, not the overall problem.

The club is rotten to the core and the players are on easy street, going through the motions putting in the minimum effort that they need to, in order to keep them at Everton.

 

[Tubey]

Is the club divided though?

The club appointed the manager and will back him.

Elements of the fanbase may be divided but do you really think the board, owner, manager or club as a whole care overly about that?

Goodison is full every week, as will the new stadium once open; merchandise is selling so at what point does anyone at the club care if some in the fanbase are upset that the manager once managed Liverpool.

By all means moan about performances; but we know the team is poor/inconsistent in need of a lot of work which we can't do due to recruitment failures over the last 5 years. Short term yes, Rafael takes the blame for recent results; but long term he's just come in at the end of seasons of rubbish from the top to bottom of the club.

It's exactly that.

I can understand criticism of him for zonal marking and subs on a game to game basis. And yes, Iwobi coming on and Rondon staying on the pitch, baffling.

But conversely in other games he's made tremendous substitutions and changed the game. So it's not like he constantly makes daft decisions in that area.

No, what is happening is a desperate attempt to scramble around and pin everything on Benitez. Like we haven't just had one of the most accomplished managers in world football before him have exactly the same problem with this bunch of mutants we charitably call footballers in an Everton shirt.

We're 8th after nine games with a squad that will exceed expectations if they finish top half - to be honest, with injuries to a few players it's a squad that'd be lucky to stay in the league altogether. Benitez has done fine so far. Watford, however, was a horrendous result and he bears some responsibility for it.

But the idea that he's the wrong manager because of it, that it happened because of him, neglecting 5+ years of being varying degrees of inept on and off the pitch, is ridiculous, and I can't take criticisms of him seriously because of it. You cannot name one manager in world football who'd get a tune out of this lot, not a single one, and I can prove it because we've just had objectively one of the best in the modern era - the current Real Madrid manager - and his record at home for us was manure as he sat there watching Josh Maja and Jebbison put us to the sword.

Benitez isn't the problem, the club is. Top to bottom. And the sooner people can get that into their head the better.

 

[BlueToff]

And what other manager is getting better out of these bunch of tossers?

You talk about possession, but we're not going to be playing tiki taka with Allan and Tom Davies.

It's a dreadful squad. The balance and depth is just horrifying - there's nothing to it. Nobody could do anything more with it. So to bash Benitez for having basically nothing at his disposal and when no other manager could do anything different is, again, agenda driven nonsense.

Why do you equate possession to tika taka? That's not what I'm asking for at all. I'm asking us to be a bit more composed on the ball and not surrender it so easy. Only Burnley and Newcastle have had less of the ball than us and we haven't played anyone, bar United, that you'd say is definitely ahead of us, have we? Maybe West Ham when they're at full strength and given our injuries. That's a worry for me. Because we're one dimensional. If we can't counter then we don't really have another way of creating chances, other than hope Townsend puts in a good cross which unless Richarlison/Dom are playing doesn't seem to matter anyway as nobody gets on the end of it. My biggest gripe at the end of last season is Ancelotti only had one way of playing. I've not seen that change at all so far, we still only have one way of playing.

I agree on the squad. It's the same as last year except switch out James and Sigurdsson for Gray and Townsend. Well, we were 4th in March last year. And I was one of Ancelotti's biggest critics, but don't start the 'who could get more out of the squad' line. If Benitez has us 4th in March, then he'll have got the same out of the squad that Ancelotti did. If he goes on to finish higher than 10th/get more than 59 points (that may be enough to see us finish 7th or 8th this year, who knows) then we can say he's got as much or more out of them as Ancelotti did.

As it stands, I've seen no improvement in the footy overall, I've seen us regress at set-pieces and I have at least seen Benitez get more out of certain players (Doucoure) but then again he's got less out of others (Digne). When all that adds up to me I'd say it's just exactly the same dross as last year.

I'm not bashing Benitez, I think my post was pretty balanced. I don't think he's done anything in the last five years to warrant him being given the job. He was given it purely because he's seen as a 'safe' pair of hands that won't take us down.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Is the club divided though?

The club appointed the manager and will back him.

Elements of the fanbase may be divided but do you really think the board, owner, manager or club as a whole care overly about that?

Goodison is full every week, as will the new stadium once open; merchandise is selling so at what point does anyone at the club care if some in the fanbase are upset that the manager once managed Liverpool.

By all means moan about performances; but we know the team is poor/inconsistent in need of a lot of work which we can't do due to recruitment failures over the last 5 years. Short term yes, Rafael takes the blame for recent results; but long term he's just come in at the end of seasons of rubbish from the top to bottom of the club.

The club/board clearly do not care, or they would not have put the support through this humiliation.

But the club is wider than the board and we they need a united and supportive fan base to have a chance of success. The club claims to represent the fans and the traditions of the club but this decision suggests otherwise. There is no other example in history of success coming to such a disunited club. How anyone can honestly believe this ends well truly baffles me. If the evidence suggests something cannot work then I want to try something that could work.

There are no easy answers with such a disfunctional club and structures, but Benitez is clearly the wrong solution. A manager cannot succeed in this environment, especially one too stubborn to keep little things in place that had previously worked. We have enough problems without ruining the one thing that was working well (i.e. set plays).

If you have an example of such an unpopular appointment working well then by all means tell me. I genuinely would like something to cling on to.

Where I see no evidence in support of something working, I find it delusional to think it could work. I cannot support something that I feel is going to make the club even less competitive. It's not the person that is the problem, it's the environment their appointment created that is the problem.

 

[Thomasc]

Why do you equate possession to tika taka? That's not what I'm asking for at all. I'm asking us to be a bit more composed on the ball and not surrender it so easy. Only Burnley and Newcastle have had less of the ball than us and we haven't played anyone, bar United, that you'd say is definitely ahead of us, have we? Maybe West Ham when they're at full strength and given our injuries. That's a worry for me. Because we're one dimensional. If we can't counter then we don't really have another way of creating chances, other than hope Townsend puts in a good cross which unless Richarlison/Dom are playing doesn't seem to matter anyway as nobody gets on the end of it. My biggest gripe at the end of last season is Ancelotti only had one way of playing. I've not seen that change at all so far, we still only have one way of playing.

I agree on the squad. It's the same as last year except switch out James and Sigurdsson for Gray and Townsend. Well, we were 4th in March last year. And I was one of Ancelotti's biggest critics, but don't start the 'who could get more out of the squad' line. If Benitez has us 4th in March, then he'll have got the same out of the squad that Ancelotti did. If he goes on to finish higher than 10th/get more than 59 points (that may be enough to see us finish 7th or 8th this year, who knows) then we can say he's got as much or more out of them as Ancelotti did.

As it stands, I've seen no improvement in the footy overall, I've seen us regress at set-pieces and I have at least seen Benitez get more out of certain players (Doucoure) but then again he's got less out of others (Digne). When all that adds up to me I'd say it's just exactly the same dross as last year.

I'm not bashing Benitez, I think my post was pretty balanced. I don't think he's done anything in the last five years to warrant him being given the job. He was given it purely because he's seen as a 'safe' pair of hands that won't take us down.

That bit I’ve highlighted, it’s like you’ve not watched us for the last 5 years.
They aren’t confident enough or capable.

 

[BlueToff]

That bit I’ve highlighted, it’s like you’ve not watched us for the last 5 years.
They aren’t confident enough or capable.

Oh I've watched every single game.

We've gone through tons of players in the last five years.

Plenty of them came from teams capable of holding onto the ball.

I have no issue with us looking to play on the counter, btw. But you can't give up possession and then not defend well. Bar one or two games, we've not defended well. Our organisation all over the pitch is non-existent. Saturday's result had been coming because we've allowed teams to waltz through us all season. Burnley played us off the park for an hour ffs - would you say Josh Brownhill and Adam Westwood are more capable of holding onto the ball than Allan and Doucoure? Are Leeds' Klich and Dallas better on the ball?

People got all excited because they always had this mad idea footy was just about intensity and effort. Yeah, they're huge parts of it, but you actually have to play with some quality too. That isn't just about buying better players, there has to be some coaching improvement, but we've hired a manager who has never shown he has that in him. Ancelotti probably did, he just didn't know how to get it out of the level of players we have, which is on him too and a failing of him.

I'm not asking for us to go back to the Martinez days. I just want to see us be able to control spells of matches. Nearly every single team in the league can do it bar us and Norwich, Newcastle (under Bruce) and Watford (yeah, them again), and we don't have the worst footballers in the league.

 

[UptheTofees]

Oh I've watched every single game.

We've gone through tons of players in the last five years.

Plenty of them came from teams capable of holding onto the ball.

I have no issue with us looking to play on the counter, btw. But you can't give up possession and then not defend well. Bar one or two games, we've not defended well. Our organisation all over the pitch is non-existent. Saturday's result had been coming because we've allowed teams to waltz through us all season. Burnley played us off the park for an hour ffs - would you say Josh Brownhill and Adam Westwood are more capable of holding onto the ball than Allan and Doucoure? Are Leeds' Klich and Dallas better on the ball?

People got all excited because they always had this mad idea footy was just about intensity and effort. Yeah, they're huge parts of it, but you actually have to play with some quality too. That isn't just about buying better players, there has to be some coaching improvement, but we've hired a manager who has never shown he has that in him. Ancelotti probably did, he just didn't know how to get it out of the level of players we have, which is on him too and a failing of him.

I'm not asking for us to go back to the Martinez days. I just want to see us be able to control spells of matches. Nearly every single team in the league can do it bar us and Norwich, Newcastle (under Bruce) and Watford (yeah, them again), and we don't have the worst footballers in the league.

to sum it up we need quality
Running hard will only get you so far

 

[BlueToff]

to sum it up we need quality
Running hard will only get you so far

and I appreciate that we need better players, I really do.

But it shouldn't be impossible for any manager to instil some quality on the ball. Loads do it with much poorer teams than ours.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

It's exactly that.

I can understand criticism of him for zonal marking and subs on a game to game basis. And yes, Iwobi coming on and Rondon staying on the pitch, baffling.

But conversely in other games he's made tremendous substitutions and changed the game. So it's not like he constantly makes daft decisions in that area.

No, what is happening is a desperate attempt to scramble around and pin everything on Benitez. Like we haven't just had one of the most accomplished managers in world football before him have exactly the same problem with this bunch of mutants we charitably call footballers in an Everton shirt.

We're 8th after nine games with a squad that will exceed expectations if they finish top half - to be honest, with injuries to a few players it's a squad that'd be lucky to stay in the league altogether. Benitez has done fine so far. Watford, however, was a horrendous result and he bears some responsibility for it.

But the idea that he's the wrong manager because of it, that it happened because of him, neglecting 5+ years of being varying degrees of inept on and off the pitch, is ridiculous, and I can't take criticisms of him seriously because of it. You cannot name one manager in world football who'd get a tune out of this lot, not a single one, and I can prove it because we've just had objectively one of the best in the modern era - the current Real Madrid manager - and his record at home for us was manure as he sat there watching Josh Maja and Jebbison put us to the sword.

Benitez isn't the problem, the club is. Top to bottom. And the sooner people can get that into their head the better.

Agree with all this.

It was inevitable;



Everton's attitude problem was here long before Benitez. That's not hyperbole from a fan either, it's from the clubs captain in Seamus Coleman and previous manager Carlo Ancelotti. I put together some words on it in May;

Everton's Attitude Problem - Grand Old Team

Bare. Bear with me. I’m not a writer. I’ve wrote written about 5 opinion articles since setting up GrandOldTeam way back in 2007, with the last coming 17 months ago. I leave the words to Evertonians significantly more articulate and informed than myself so thank you for humouring me with a read...

www.grandoldteam.com

We have Tim Cahill publicly criticising the attitude of these players. We have Alan Stubbs, throwing rocks in glass houses saying the same and encouraging fans to challenge the board.

A big issue with Benitez though is that he is very easy for players, and to be fair, the board, to hide behind. Make no mistake this does happen, Coleman admitted the players have hid behind managers before Ancelotti.

We need to avoid the temptation to fume at the manager and instead, look at the board. That's where the rot has come from.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

It's exactly that.

I can understand criticism of him for zonal marking and subs on a game to game basis. And yes, Iwobi coming on and Rondon staying on the pitch, baffling.

But conversely in other games he's made tremendous substitutions and changed the game. So it's not like he constantly makes daft decisions in that area.

No, what is happening is a desperate attempt to scramble around and pin everything on Benitez. Like we haven't just had one of the most accomplished managers in world football before him have exactly the same problem with this bunch of mutants we charitably call footballers in an Everton shirt.

We're 8th after nine games with a squad that will exceed expectations if they finish top half - to be honest, with injuries to a few players it's a squad that'd be lucky to stay in the league altogether. Benitez has done fine so far. Watford, however, was a horrendous result and he bears some responsibility for it.

But the idea that he's the wrong manager because of it, that it happened because of him, neglecting 5+ years of being varying degrees of inept on and off the pitch, is ridiculous, and I can't take criticisms of him seriously because of it. You cannot name one manager in world football who'd get a tune out of this lot, not a single one, and I can prove it because we've just had objectively one of the best in the modern era - the current Real Madrid manager - and his record at home for us was manure as he sat there watching Josh Maja and Jebbison put us to the sword.

Benitez isn't the problem, the club is. Top to bottom. And the sooner people can get that into their head the better.

Someone give this fella a medal.

A Hero we need but dont deserve.

 

[roy vernon]

Rondón wont play now Ricky is back, simple as that

Well he was given a full 90 on Saturday, despite Richarlison coming on from the bench. Our illustrious leader, the master tactician, decided that a fit young player, who was having a good game was not fit enough for 90 minutes while Rondon, who was blowing for tugs after 5 minutes, was.

He will continue to play Rondon until Rondon is injured, Benitez is far too stubborn to admit he has made a huge mistake.

 

[FrenchDarrenBent]

Someone give this fella a medal.

A Hero we need but dont deserve.

He is a fine man and a fine contributor

 

[MikeH72]

Know your enemy.

 

[MikeH72]

to sum it up we need quality
Running hard will only get you so far

Erm, we don’t run hard.

 

[ToffeeTim]

to sum it up we need quality
Running hard will only get you so far

Yes but if you don't run enough then you will get nowhere. Our intensity in the last quarter of the game on Saturday was appalling. We didn't get to the ball first, we bottled challenges, we stopped pressing forward.

Until we get consistent intensity and commitment in our performances, then we can forget about everything else. If you don't want to win your challenges and loose balls, then forget about it in this league.

I'm embarassed watching this side. They aren't worthy of wearing the blue shirt.